Harry potter The next Generation
by Lizard-sheep
Summary: The story is about 20 years after the end of the 7nth book and follows mostly the main character Jamie, who's trying to cure her condition with magic.  This story does not follow the original books to the letter, so don't try to compare it.
1. A glorious life

- CHAPTER ONE -

A glorious life

Jamie woke with a peculiar, but familiar, sensation. A warm, sticky fluid covered her pillow and face. She reached for the desk-lamp on the small bedside table, flicking the switch. Jamie closed her eyes to the sudden brightness, cursing her thoughtlessness as much as the light. It took her eye's a while to adjust and once they did to a satisfactory degree she turned around to take a look at her pillow.

It was covered in an obscene amount of her own blood. Touching her cheek and then holding her hand in front of her eyes she noticed that it was also covered in blood. Jamie also couldn't breathe through her nose, where the blood had already started to clod.

This was the third time in a week that she had woken like this. Jamie was more or less used to it, the torture like headaches she had gotten when she was younger didn't even wake her any more. But to her annoyance the disgusting stickiness and the smell of blood still did.

_Well it would be worse if it didn't wake me any more I guess._

Jamie didn't mind Her Sickly condition as much as she once did, what really got on her nerves was the fact that it forced her body to gush blood out of her nose a couple of times each day.

She had learned at a young age that feeling self-pity only made it worse and that anger only increased her blood pressure and the number of times her nose was bleeding.

Jamie's situation had made her, what some would call a "sarcastic, bitter and cynical old Woman" at the age of ten. She hadn't always been like this, but in her opinion the knowledge of having a lifespan that's barely even worth mentioning, was a considerable excuse.

She didn't have any friends, or had had any in the past, for several reasons; she was very pale due to the continuous blood loss; her steadily bleeding nose was really creepy and thirdly; her sarcastic and cynical nature didn't seem to appeal to people her age.

Picking up her blood-soaked pillow she left her bed for the little bathroom on the right side next to the entrance. It was the smallest bathroom imaginable, but somehow, someone had still managed to fit everything in there that was in a normal sized bathroom.

Jamie walked over to the mirror and studied Herself.

She had long blond, almost white hair, except the parts that were hardened by dried blood at the moment; and pale, azure eyes. It did not help that this made her look even more pale, she would look like an albino if it weren't for the blue eyes. For a moment she thought bitterly amused that the only colour she had was due to all the blood covering her face at the moment.

Not only did she look very sick because of her unnatural paleness, she was also very thin with hollow cheeks and dark rings under her eyes. Jamie had always been very small, she didn't know if it was because she hadn't grown properly because of her constant loss of blood or if she was just naturally small. She also wasn't very fit, her muscles where underdeveloped and didn't seem to grow like they did with other people. She exhausted very fast due to her crippled Internal organs. She got tired after short walks and running was an absolute taboo.

With a practised hand she started to wash her face and removed most of the blood, doing this at least once a day and sometimes even more often, she hardly noticed her hands moving until she had suddenly finished.

Jamie looked into the mirror, now considerably cleaner and able to breathe through her nose. Satisfied she picked up the pillow again and left her room. The corridor of the Hospital was dark and only the small speck from the nurses office at the far end spend any light for orientation.

Jamie wasn't scared of the dark, she often woke in the middle of the night with her face, and pillow, drenched in blood.

Knocking on the door to the nurses office she waited until a small, brown-haired woman with a kind face opened the door. The nurse looked her up and down "what's this then? Need another pillow _again_?"

"didn't like the colour" she answered.

The nurse smiled at her "What was it last time? Unsatisfactory resistance to moisture? you got to think of new excuses, or" she said with a small pause "you could just stop ruining your pillows"

Jamie looked at the woman blankly, she knew the nurse only wanted to encourage her, like most people Jamie's unflinching stare seemed to make her uncomfortable.

There wasn't really anything productive that Jamie could say so she just went for "I, suppose"

The older woman's smile seemed forced at Jamie's disinterested reaction, but really what was she supposed to say? That she would try to stop her lethal sickness, make a joke about her death sentence? start a philosophic conversation with someone who didn't know what It felt like to slowly rot and not being able to do anything against it?

The Nurse Gently took the pillow from her "let me get you a new Pillow dear one" and left the office for the laundry rooms behind it.

Jamie looked around at the familiar room, she had been in here many times, so many times in fact that she knew almost the whole night-time staff.

Jamie had to spent one out of three weeks in a Hospital, she didn't see the point, why would she have to go to the Hospital if her condition was incurable?

But Jamie never voiced any of her complains. At least it was better than the orphanage, no bratty children making fun of her for her paleness or the sudden blood fountains from her nose.

Jamie did not have any relatives as far as she knew, her Parent's and twin-sister had died in a car accident when she was four, she only barely survived.

Jamie didn't remember any of it, neither did she remember her parents the Doctors assumed it was due to trauma.

Later she had been told by the people who found the wreckage that everyone was dead, except a small Girl who was impaled through the chest and the back ripped open in a bloody mess. Strangely enough she survived, something people later came to speak of as medical miracle.

Jamie had been in a coma for a few months when she finally awoke in a weak and broken body. Her wounds had gotten infected, which was the reason she had not woken so long. The infection had caused irreversible damage to her inner organs, mostly her lung and she was now having frequent nose bleeds and suffered from sudden exhaustion, muscle weakness and shortness of breath.

The doctors had never seen anything like the infection that had befallen her, they didn't know how to deal with it, they tried a lot of things but nothing ever worked.

Jamie was starting to get impatient. How hard could it be to get her a new pillow?

When the woman reappeared the skin around her eyes was swollen and her cheeks were still moist where she hadn't been able to dry her tears.

The Nurse seemed to want to ignore the fact that she had obviously been crying and handed Jamie the pillow as if nothing had happened "here you go sweetheart".

Jamie took the pillow, looked at the nurse and her red eyes one last time and left the room. The woman seriously had the wrong profession if she was crying for every person who died, was dying, or who was a walking corpse like Jamie herself.

Once back in her room she already noticed the tremble in her legs, apparently the strain of walking down the corridor twice and standing in the nurses office was too much for her.

She fell on her bed and was unable to move, she couldn't even cover herself with her Blanket.

The muffling blanket of nothing enveloped her, she didn't feel self-pity nor anger, feelings where things for people who had something to live for.

Looking at it realistically, she really hadn't.

Jamie woke with a start, she was in a bed covered with warm blankets.

Frowning Jamie examined her surroundings, she knew she had collapsed in the hospital and this was definitely not a hospital. She was in a small old fashioned room, with old wooden furniture, a large window that was slightly opened letting in a mild breeze and the floor was covered with a heavy thick carpet.

_The orphanage then._ _There wouldn't be a carpet in the Hospital, it would just be to difficult to clean._

Jamie relieved herself of the, for someone like her, much to heavy blankets and threw her leg's over the side of the bed. She felt good, better then she had in a long time, her muscles felt relaxed and for a change (mildly) powerful.

She jumped out of bed looking down at herself, she wore a blue pyjama with, disgusting frills at the end of each sleeve.

Jamie was speechless for a moment as she stared at the frills "what the fu..."

But she couldn't go on if only for the incredulity of the whole thing, disgusted she went to rummage the closet for something acceptable to wear.

Jamie opened the cupboard and took out a pair of old, light blue, jeans which had been ripped at several places but neatly sewn back together by non other then herself and a black shirt. Jamie really wasn't a person for skirt's or dresses in her opinion they looked quite silly, especially on her, her legs looked like shrivelled dry sticks when she tried wearing them.

Once dressed Jamie went to the window and looked outside.

The Orphanage was located south of Cambridge, quite far away of any kind of civilisation, it was a place for children to run, play and explore the forest. Not that she could do any of those things. It was her little Prison in Paradise.

Most of the time Jamie was just bored, there was nothing to do apart from reading books in the library, but she had already read most of them. It had been like this ever since she dropped out of school, she had been quite good really, top of her class, but after a very severe stroke she had decided to quit.

Everyone agreed that she should spend her time the way she wanted. She would have no use for an education anyway, she would die before entering secondary school, nobody said it but everybody thought it she was sure..

Jamie looked at the infuriatingly harmonic scenery one last time, noticing that it had absolutely no effect on her and turned away. No Matter how bright the sun shone some places where just beyond it's reach, it would always seem desolate and dark to Jamie. She went downstairs, not to the kitchen but to the library, in books she could forget herself, her condition and everything else.

When Jamie opened the door to the library, nobody beside herself was there, like always, most other kids where to busy running around and bothering each other to read, Jamie wasn't sure if some of them actually could read..

With the other children in the orphanage never reading anything in the library, Jamie sometimes asked herself why they even had this room when no one ever used it, but then she decided it was irrelevant as long as she could read all she wanted.

Jamie sat down on one of the cushioned chairs and opened one of the few books she hadn't read. It was a Fantasy book in a medieval time period, with a plot revolving around a thief rescuing a prince and receiving a title of nobility and from there gradually working his way up to one of the most powerful men of the Kingdom.

She had already read several of the same kind and she enjoyed them quite much, she didn't only read Fantasy books she had also read books about history, medicine, philosophy and science. Putting it simply; she just really loved to read.

She was so focused on the book that at first she didn't notice the person who had entered the library, she looked up in time to see him hit the book out of her hands, making it spin and land underneath a desk at the other side of the library.

Jeremy was another orphan like herself, but unlike her he was a bully with the belief that his misery would decrease if he increased the misery of others, he hardly ever got to her, though he often tried.

"Well if it isn't little miss nosebleed, spending your last few days on this world with something useless like reading? Too bad you can't do anything actually fun without kicking the bucket, eh?" he asked with a smile as fake as his bravado.

"I guess a person like you wouldn't even like to read if he was able to, but who knows? maybe you'll actually enjoy it once you've learned your letters, you'll come back to me once you did won't you?"

It didn't seem to affect him, intelligent people disliked being called stupid, simple people loathed it, but people on the edge of retardation didn't even seem to notice.

"I can read just fine" he replied apparently confused through her statement.

She doubted it very much, when she had still been in class he had asked which letters to use to spell "Apple". He was giving her a headache, she had small patience for fools, even less then for normal people.

She wasn't exactly sure how to get rid of him the only idea she had was to send him to fetch something, it worked with dog's so why not with semi-intelligent humans?

"Hey Jeremy I heard they're making pancakes today if you don't hurry, they'll eat them all without you"

He smiled "nice try"

Surprised she muttered "huh, I underestiMated you, who thought that, that was even possible"

His face turned red "hey, shut up!"

"whys your face so red Jeremy? there's no reason to be ashamed of your limitations, noone will think any less of you, although that's more because I don't see how someone could still think any less of you"

Jeremy's face turned purple and his whole body began to shake "I SAID SHUT UP, YOU BITCH!"

"why did you come here Jeremy? I know it can't be because you thought you'd get the better of me, even you are not that dense, do you like being made a fool of Jeremy? are you a masochist Jeremy?"

Apparently that was as much as he could take, since the next thing Jamie saw when the world came back into focus was Him sitting on her chest with his fat fingers around her throat.

Not that he sitting on her chest wasn't already enough to squeeze all air out of her lungs, he wasn't the lightest fellow in the orphanage.

She tried to get his hands of her throat, but it was useless, for someone like her it was like trying to uproot a tree with the only tool at hand being a fork.

She was already beginning to feel light headed

Weird, she had always assumed that she would choke to death on her own blood while she slept, or from a particularly heavy stroke. But she certainly never imagined being strangled by a fat Jerk in a library.

Not that it Mattered she had been living with a death-sentence since she was five, perhaps it was even better to finally get it over with, this way she wouldn't have to live only to anticipate her death.

Then again being killed by Jeremy was degrading, he couldn't even tie his own shoes for Christ's sake, and he thought he could kill HER? Jamie Saunders?

Fury bubbled to the surface of her mind, the first emotion she had felt in years, her eyes popped open and focused on a surprised looking Jeremy.

She felt... electrified, like a red-hot lightening bolt was bottled up inside of her.

With a wrench it left the barriers of her own body.

Jeremy flew back so sudden as if he'd been hit by a truck, swirled through the air and hit a shelf with enough force so that the building shook, half the books fell onto him as he unkindly crashed to the floor.

_What the hell was that?_

She had no idea what just happened, she only knew that she had just flung someone double, if not triple, her size across the room without breaking in sweat, with something she could only think of as telepathy.

Her throat was burning like hell and her ribs were sore and felt kind of splintered, which was probably not a good sign.

Slowly Jamie got up, she didn't feel too good, but she expected Jeremy felt downright awful, well he wasn't moving anyway. Jamie used her foot to turn him around to see if he was still breathing and the smell of burned flesh filled her nostrils there was a hole burnt in his shirt and underneath the skin was red and teaming with blisters, but the low moan coming from his throat told her he was still alive.

Not that she cared, the bastard had tried to kill her. She looked at him for a moment and kicked him between the leg's for good measure. His only response was a tone somewhere between a cough and a whine.

She was just considering what to do next since it would be quite probleMatic if someone found her next to a boy who had obviously been burnt and beaten, when suddenly there were a couple of popping sounds behind her, much like the sound it makes when one puts their finger in their mouth on the inside of their cheek and flops it.

Jamie turned around to see seven people who where dressed in a quite misMatched fashion, who seemed to ha appeared out of thin air.

"Great, now I'm going insane"

One of them belatedly noticed her and... "Hey, who the Hell are you"

"Who am I? You're a figment of my imagination and you don't know who I am?"

He narrowed his eyes in confusion "wha...?"

"will we all please remember what we came here for?" A particularly bearded fellow said "She's obviously the one who did it, what are you? a first year? come on lass speak up"

A woman with Scarlett hair spoke before she could even draw a breath "Are you sure that's her? she looks a tad too confused for my sake, I think she's a Muggle"

There was another pop and an eighth person stood in the room.

The sandy haired man with a three-day beard looked at everyone in the room and said "sorry I'm late" he didn't sound sorry at all, just very tired.

"Finnigan" one of the initial seven people exclaimed "what are you doing here?"

The hook nosed woman who had been silent up till now replied "use your head Doug, where does Finnigan work? that's right he works in the department for accidental magic"

Jamie lowered her brows, she must have surely imagined it, the woman couldn't possibly believe in magic, but then again she had just seen a man Materialize out of thin air.

"but that would mean she's not a student yet!" The man exclaimed as if the very notion was ludicrous

"she isn't" Finnigan supplied.

Everyone looked at her surprised and awed.

Jamie looked back at them for a whole minute before she shouted at them "Who the hell are you people, did a field trip bus from the Special-people society break down near the compound? how come nobody's saying anything about the half-dead prick over there?" she pointed at Jeremy "how come you're all wearing dresses? and how come you" she pointed at Finnigan "just Materialize and nobody but me is surprised?"

"That's because we are all wizards" Finnigan said "and witches" he added with an apologetic look at the women in the room.

"They're all from the department for under aged magic reversal" He continued "while I am from the department for accidental magic reversal"

They were all insane, but then again he just had Materialized and then again she had just catapulted a boy three times as heavy as herself across the room, for her that definitely wasn't possible, she remorsefully looked at her bony arms.

"so that would make me a witch" already accepting the reality of the improbable insanity.

She looked at the still smoking Jeremy and pointed at him "am I going to get into trouble for that?"

Finnigan waved his hand as if to chase away a fly "it's okay I'm sure you didn't really mean to"

"oh but I did" she said "and I still think it was the right thing to do"

He looked a little disturbed by this but he said nonetheless "your intentions are as insignificant as your action here, since you fall under that jurisdiction of the Department of accidental magic reversal, you can't be held responsible for your actions since you weren't aware of your magical potential, but now that you know you're a witch, you also know that you have certain abilities, which is enough to put you on trial for under age magic."

While he had been talking the other Wizards had started moving towards Jeremy brandishing small wooden sticks, seeming to examine him.

Suddenly Mr. Finnigan stood next to her "they're going to take care of everything, why don't we have a chat while they're at it? you thirsty?" she shrugged her shoulders.

He touched her lightly on the arm and everything went black; she was being pressed very hard from all directions; she could not breathe, there were iron bands tightening around her chest; her eyeballs were being forced back into her head; her eardrums were being pushed deeper into her skull.

Lily woke with a start at the sudden brightness that tried to penetrate her closed eyelids in vigorous attacks. Moaning and thrashing in the blanket that ensnared her she tried to hide in a spot the light wouldn't disturb her any more. But her Mother seemed to have different plans for the morning.

"out of bed lazybones, we have a long day ahead of us" She said while pulling away the comfortable blanket.

Eyes still closed Lily fought vehemently for her right to sleep in, but the blanket was never returned to her. Opening one eye to spy on her surroundings she found her room empty of any other human being, her mother had already left and had taken the blanket with her to prevent her going to bed again. "good morning to you too" Lily mumbled miffed, She never had been good in the morning and always slept longer then anyone else in the house. Throwing her legs over the side of the bed she sat up with droopy eyes and ruffled hair, her pyjamas hanging askew. Lily scratched her back and yawned.

The form of her mother hushed outside her door and called "that's not very lady-like. Come on get dressed and join us at the breakfast-table"

yap, yap, yap, yap, not even a single moment of peace in the morning, Lily exhaled with a great sigh.

Resigned she undressed and moved to the cupboard, not being vain by nature she just picked the next-best underwear a pair of jeans and a black shirt with a skull on the front. Closing the door of the cupboard Lily studied herself in the mirror, She had bright red hair and a lot of freckles from her mothers side of the family and glowing, emerald green eyes from her father, he claimed his mother, her Grandmother, had had the same eyes and that it was the single dominant trait in his family. Her hair almost reached her hips and she was now pulling it back into a ponytail behind her head, Lily seemed to be an early developer she was tall for her age and even her breasts had started to grow a little, people always said she had to be at least two to three years older then she claimed.

After brushing her teeth and another, more impatient, call from her mother to join breakfast, Lily

sulkily moved down the stairs. Entering the kitchen she noticed her father and mother were already sitting at the table, so she dropped into the chair opposite of them. Lily looked a lot more like her mother then her dad, from whom she only had the emerald green eyes.

Her dad had Dark hair, round glasses and was ever so slightly smaller then his wife, which didn't seem to bother him, he was surrounded by a strange air of authority and power that demanded respect from most people. It was rare for her father to join meals this time of the year because he had to visit about half a dozen families a day, so Lily guessed there was a hidden reason behind the cosy family meal.

Her mother was the first to break the silence "Good morning sleepyhead, you may have wondered why I woke you up so early"

"not really" Lily replied dryly, it was the truth, she didn't really care she only knew she hated to get up early for whatever the reason.

Her mother smiled and told her the news anyway handing her a piece of paper "your Hogwarts letter arrived today"

Lily's brows knit together and looked at her father "I thought you wrote the letters?"

He grimaced at her "oh no, I only pick them up before I meet with the family. Write them ha! I don't think so"

Lily narrowed her eyes, there was more behind this then the letter "so that's it? That's why I was

rudely awakened so early in the morning?"

With a fake comforting tone Her mother told her "oh we know how much you need your sleep

pumpkin, but it's almost the middle of the day, your father has already taken care of two of his

errands" she added more seriously.

"we have to tell you something" her father said with for him uncommonly serious expression.

"Oh my god, you're breaking up and I have to decide who I want to live with right?" She asked only half joking.

Her father dismissed her concern with a wave of his hand "of course not, it's actually pretty obvious if you try not to get yourself worked up in a hysterical rant" he chastised her "because with you now entering Hogwarts all of us are going to be there, I accepted the position as caretaker during the summer holidays. Meaning the next seven years Hogwarts is going to be all our homes, so well be renting this house since we won't be needing it"

Lily gawked at them speechless and that didn't happen very often "y-you mean I have to spend the next seven entire years there? I might not even like it there!"

Her father frowned "it's Hogwarts. Why wouldn't you like it?"

"oh excuse me if I don't share your love for cold, dark, old buildings where every hallway actively tries to get you lost" she spat at him.

Her Mum laughed while her dad frowned "let me tell you that Hogwarts is neither cold, nor dark and for getting lost, okay I give you that but with practice you get everywhere all-right and you won't be alone like here. There will be at least two other children I know of who'll be there the whole time"

Lily wasn't satisfied "why would anybody stay there the whole year of their own free will?"

Her father considered his words for a moment before answering solemnly "not all people have

families to take care of them Lily, some of them simply don't have a choice while for others the

alternative is much worse then staying on there own" Lily deflated "well not on their own since they'll be having us" Her father added as an after-thought

Now Lily started to smile "oh no, can we really torment those poor souls like that"

Her parents shared her smile and her mother said "I think they will grow used to us"

Lily looked at her parents her morning grumpiness finally clearing up "I hope they will, or else the next seven years are going to be very long. Anyway where's my letter I want to read it"

Her father answered "your mother will give it to you, which reminds me we will have to go to

Diagon alley soon, but we'll talk about that later I have to go and speak to the next Family"

With those words he had already vanished with a popping sound leaving Lily to shake her head "I so hate it when people do that"

"Look out!"

Mat turned around when he heard the warning and received a hard hit in the right side of his face, his neck felt like it was breaking, which it would he knew if he couldn't keep himself on the broom.

- _Why do bludgers even exist?_

But then he thought it would probably be very boring without them.

Descending on a wobbly broom Mat had to dodge the bludger, that was coming for him again and shouted "can somebody please keep tha' ball from killin´ me?"

His voice sounded weird to him through the ringing in his ear's and he didn't like the feeling of the warm liquid accumulating inside his mouth. One of his team-Mates came to his rescue hitting the bludger towards the other beater on their team, since it was only a fun Match they had no problem with stopping for an injured player, a few other people landed with him.

"are you all-right?" one of them asked.

Mat shrugged and touched his face "I schink ma ja isch brok..." but he couldn't finish because there was to much blood in his mouth, he spat and received a choir of "ewww"'s.

One of his team-Mates winced "you should go inside and show your mum, before you pass out or something"

Mat, who's face was beginning to swell at a alarming speed, looked at them with his left eye (since the other one was already swollen shut) and not being able to make the sarcastic comment he wanted to throw at the boy's head. So he shrugged trying not to sigh because he just knew that was going to hurt, he was pretty much used to pain but he wasn't keen to experience more if he had to. He had often broken bones while outside, alone in the last year he had broken his right arm and leg, a few ribs and his ankle. The fast mending remedies didn't help to infuse caution in him, it actually had pretty much the opposite effect.

He started for his house at the edge of Hogsmede. Originally created by merchant's trying to sell

there ware's to the student's coming down from Hogwarts, Hogsmede had grown into a seizable

town as more and more wizard family's had started to live there due to the convenience of having their children near them when they attended Hogwarts, it deferred from the actual purpose of a boarding school but nobody seemed to care.

The settlement of a lot of new family's had also attracted many other merchant's who were selling more 'honourable' ware's then sweets and toys. There was now a whole new street of shops containing a Tailor, a book store (a smaller Flourish & Blotts), a Wand shop that received most of the Materials from Hogwarts Forbidden forest and the creatures living in it, and a dozen other shops specialising in the supplies needed for school work, it was the only place where you could get everything you needed for Hogwarts in one place apart from Diagon Alley.

The two places where so much alike that the locals had started calling the street by the nickname "Diagon´s little sister" although when proposed the name was officially rejected by the village council.

- _Why am I thinking about this? Did I hit me head or something? Oh wait right I did._

Confused and growing more worried by the minute he opened the door leading into the kitchen, he called for his parent's but his shattered and swollen jaw just wouldn't produce the sounds he wanted so he searched the house manually.

He hoped he would encounter his dad first since he was usually more easy-going with this kind of stuff, Mat's mother would probably try to confine him to his rooms before sending him to the

infirmary. Trying not to get to much blood over the kitchen floor he walked quickly through the rooms and found his father taking a nap on the sofa in the living room snoring softly, relieved Mat poked him on the shoulder.

"hmm? Whazze Matter? lemme sleep"

then he actually saw his son and was suddenly wide awake "Good lord, what happened to yer face?"

Mat rolled his eye's, well his left eye since the other one was now completely concealed by the

swelling.

"Can't ye start thinking about yer poor father when ye decide to go of and try to get yourself killed? Yer mum is going to have a fit?" he groaned "yer mum, She'll have my head for this I just know it, right we need to get you to the infirmary fast without yer mother noticing anything."

Then he realised something and shouted "WHICH IS BLOODY UNLIKELY BECAUSE SHE WORKS AT THE RECEPTION!".

Mat pointed at his face urgently, indicating that this was no time to get hacked of at him, and his

father seemed to get the message.

"Right ye are, right ye are, just let me think for a moment" He paced around the room thinking and then stopped as if hit by lightening

"we'll use floo-powder to call directly into Stan's office then he'll come 'ere and take a look at ye, er... ye should probably sit down and look like yer in pain".

-_ Really! that part of it was going to be so difficult. _He thought at his father sarcastically.

His father moved over to the fireplace and flicked his wand, instantly there was a blazing fire as if it had burned for a good long time, he then grabbed the urn containing the floo-powder and threw a handful into the flames, they turned green immediately and his father said "Stan Fibbing's office".

Suddenly the head of a middle-aged man appeared, looking startled at first, but then sighted exasperated "how many times do I have to tell you not to call me in my office except for emergency's, David?"

His father reddened slightly "well this time it really is an emergency" looking doubtful but apparently willing to give him the benefit of a doubt, asked "what is it?".

Mat's father moved out of the way so that Stan could now see him "Good lord, you look like you took a Bludger right to the face!"

Mat tried to nod vigorously but could only manage some sort of spasm, the family doctor looked even more concerned "I'll be right there" he said before the fire snuffed out, man of his word he almost instantly stepped through the door and strode over to Mat and knelt before him examining his face putting a few healing spells to good use. When he was finally finished examining him the swelling was still there but at least the searing pain in his jaw was gone and things felt not so out of place once again.

"nothing I can do about the swelling with my wand, though I have just the right potion, it will be

better by tomorrow morning" Stan turned to his father "I think you want to keep this from your wife again David?" He asked disapproving.

Squirming he replied "well since she has night-shift at the infirmary, I thought it would be unwise

to, eh... agitate her"

"Really? I bet it has nothing to do with the fact that she'll have your head on a plate if she ever found out" His father squirmed again "but, since it isn't my family I will not tell her about this"

That doesn't prevent you from throwing disapproving frowns though, but Mat decided to not saying anything before he actually had his medicine.

"Mat go into your room for the rest of the evening and think about how good life can be, so that you might stop trying to end it! And also don't think I'll forget about this you'll get it tomorrow"

Mat who had, and still was, thinking that his father would forget about it, left the two arguing men behind and moved to his room.

It was on the second floor, not very spacey, actually rather small (in a comfortable way). There was almost not enough room to walk, only the small Column that allowed him to open his window between his bed to the left and desk to the right, on the wall's were poster's of his favourite Quidditch team, with the flame haired, almost legendary chaser Ronald Weasly, who unfortunately had stopped playing after winning the world cup almost two years ago, without explaining himself.

Mat guessed he just wanted to remember the moment forever and didn't want to lose the memory if he wouldn't have won the next world cup. Which was unlikely since nobody had ever stopped a single Quaffle in the whole Game.

Mat walked over to the other door next to his desk that would have led him fall from the side of his home if it wouldn't have been enchanted to hold a cupboard. He dismissively threw his broom in one corner of it and peeled out of his Quidditch gear also throwing it into another corner, he let himself fall backwards on his bed, looking at the moving poster again.

- _How nice would it be to play for England?_

Falling rapidly asleep thinking about Quidditch, not even remembering his Jaw being crushed by a bludger half an hour before, Mat fell asleep.

Sharp claw's dug into his chest and his eye's snapped open, only to see another pair of eyes directly in front of him. He screeched and so did the owl, pecking him sharply in the swollen side of his face, as punishment for startling her.

- _Stupid owl! If someone deserves punishment it's you!_

But Mat apologized anyway, it was never smart to get hacked off with things that delivered your mail.

When he realised it had in fact mail for him he quickly removed the letter from it's leg. As soon as he was finished it shot him one last stern glance and flew out of the open window, scowling after the owl he closed the window and returned to his bed examining the letter. He almost dropped it in shock, but then a huge grin spread over his face. He had forgotten that with eleven a important part of his life was about to start. Placing the letter on his desk, he went back to bed and fell asleep again, this time not thinking about Quidditch, but the letter with the Capital ´H´surrounded by Animals.


	2. Crossroads

- CHAPTER TWO -

Crossroads

Jamie rubbed her eyes with her knuckles and then opened them again, she was in bed covered by a thin white sheet, which looked far to much like a death-blanket to be of any comfort to her, the sun was shining through the curtains directly on her face.

After Mr. Finnigan had Apparated to the leaky cauldron with her, he had explained a lot of things to her.

The leaky cauldron was an Inn, a wizard Inn, also the most popular in London since it was a direct way to Diagon Alley, which was as Mr. Finnigan had explained comparable to a shopping mall in the Muggle world.

He had explained to her about magic community, hiding from normal human beings, which he had called Muggles. How they used owls as messengers and so on and so forth. He explained a lot of things that a muggle-born might find interesting, somewhere along the way he had said that he too was a muggle-born so it was easier for him to bring important things across.

He had explained to her about Hogwarts, that she was supposed to get her letter for her eleventh birthday, but since the incident with Jeremy happened he would bring it to her personally in a couple of day's, since she didn't have any money he would come with her and buy her school-supplies.

Jamie had been very interested in Magical healing, but Mr. Finnigan anticipating where her train of thought would end, had told her "Jamie, do you think we are heartless? If there would be a cure for you even in the magical world do you think we would have let you believe that you are dying for the last seven years? I'm very sorry, I don't want to de-motivate you, I just don't want you to get your hopes up just to be disappointed" He had looked genuinely regretful.

"well" she had answered "that there isn't a cure yet doesn't mean there won't be one ever"

Mr. Finnigan had seemed surprised at her unfaltering determination, then he had smiled oddly, as if saying "perhaps there was no need to worry after all"

It had been two days ago that Mr. Finnigan had left her in the Leaky cauldron, she hadn't left her room once, where would she go? Tom the owner had brought her dinner smiling indulgently at her, while she frowned at him, what was she? a freak show? a roadside attraction? Damn Toothless Bastard.

There wasn't even a window in her room and she was growing very restless, she couldn't even walk around in circles since it tired her legs out too fast. She was missing her books something fierce.

Just then she heard a muffled pop from outside her room, which was almost immediately followed by a knock on her door.

"come in" she cried.

Mr. Finnigan opened the door and stepped inside with a great flourish of his robes, he seemed to like making an entrance, it was only slightly ruined by the broad grin on his face.

"Guess what!" he said still grinning.

"no" she said not feeling like indulging a grown man.

His smile withered a little, but was quickly replaced by a mischievous expression "oh, okay it's fine if you don't want to have it" he moved as if to walk out again.

"What" Jamie said tersely.

Grinning again like a kitten fallen in a bowl of cream, he drew something from his robes. A Letter.

Jamie stretched out her hand to take the yellowish envelope, on the front stood in emerald green Letters, to Mrs. James Saunders, Room 13, Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley, London.

She pulled out the letter and read:

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**Headmaster: Minerva McGonagall (Order of Merlin, second Class, Winner of Transfiguration tournament, International Confed. of Wizards)**

**Dear Mrs. Saunders,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Harry "James" Potter,**

**Deputy Headmaster**

Well since Her birthday was on July 20. she had less then a week to reply, _Talking about peer pressure _Jamie thought.

Then she noticed a second piece of paper and unfolded it as well.

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**UNIFORM**

**First-year students will require:**

**Three sets of plain work robes (black),**

**One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear,**

**One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar),**

**One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings),**

**Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags.**

**COURSE BOOKS**

**All students should have a copy of each of the following:**

**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk,**

**A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot,**

**Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling,**

**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emetic Switch,**

**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore,**

**Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger,**

**Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander,**

**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble.**

**OTHER EQUIPMENT**

**Wand,**

**cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) set,**

**glass or crystal phials,**

**telescope set,**

**brass scales.**

**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad.**

**Parents are reminded that first years are not allowed their own Broomsticks.**

Why would anyone bring a broomstick to a boarding school? it didn't make any sense, not that she cared enough to ask, it was just irritating.

She looked at Finnigan "So when do we go shopping?" She asked.

He began grinning like a small boy again, pulled a leather purse from his robes and jingled it a little, producing a tingling of coins.

She couldn't resist Smiling herself.

Jamie didn't care much for a wand and all other equipment could be bought later, at the moment she was far more interested in books and their juicy promise of knowledge or what it essentially was for wizards and witches, power.

When She spotted "Flourish and Blots", Jamie changed direction towards it forcing Finnigan to follow like a lapdog.

When Jamie entered she was impressed, never had she seen such a giant collection of books. The shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Apart from her and the Employees only a few other people where shopping.

Jamie went looking around a bit and came upon the "Hogwarts section" all books required for each year of Hogwarts were strictly organized for each year and subject. Jamie went to the small part that was labelled "first year", there were no sub-categories in the first year part since all classes were obligatory. Unfolding her list again Jamie checked the books and was happy to see that they were all there.

**- The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk.**

**- A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot.**

**- Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling.**

**- A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emetic Switch.**

**- One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore.**

**- Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger.**

**- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander.**

**- The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble.**

After she had thrown each one of those into her shopping cart, or whatever the wizard equivalent of a shopping cart was called, she asked Finnigan to pay for them and told him that she would take a look around, he agreed telling her he'd buy her other things, so she strolled around for anything more interesting that wasn't in the first year syllabus. She went ahead and Started to read: Smaller curses & jinxes by Alfred Ransoff.

What she was most intrigued by where "Magical Drafts and Potions", "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi" and most of all "First steps on the way to a medical career" although the last one was harder to understand. She read about Plants that had healing properties by being in the same room with them, Drafts that could boost memory, improve concentration and increase the physical strength. But she was most amazed by the First aid spells she read about, even if they were unlikely to help her at all, they were the first step towards her independent research. Jamie lost herself in The books working herself into a fever of study, every word burning itself into her memory as if her life depended on it and for her it would, in a few years at least. Everyone needed to start small, getting the basics wrong would be a catastrophe especially on a more advanced stage.

"hey your supposed to be buying those not reading them" Said a loud and angry voice just behind her.

Jamie turned around and stared at the man who dared to get in the way of her research.

Unforgivable. Still staring unblinkingly at him, Jamie noticed beads of sweat forming on his forehead, her eyes drifted from him to the window towards the alley. The alley-light was already dimming with the approaching evening, how long had she read? Where was Finnigan? Had he already collected her stuff?. She hurriedly put back the book she had been reading and left the snippy Employee after one final glare who exhaled relieved and thought that, that had been one heck of a scary girl.

"what's the Matter ted? You look like you've seen the grim" his fellow employee said.

"something like that" Still shocked from his encounter he could only whisper weakly "the girl who just left was really giving me the creeps. She looked like she'd attack me any moment"

The other man only laughed "listen te yerself ted, it was only a small girl"

Ted swallowed, He had NOT imagined the ice-cold girl and he had not imagined her icy and

determined stare, that girl had been ready to kill him. Ted shivered with the after image of the cold creature and went back to work.

Jamie ran across Diagon Alley, finding Finnigan had been a piece of work, he had indeed bought her remaining things except for her cloths and wand but when she found him he was chatting up young witches, he seemed surprised that she was even there.

At least she had had the satisfaction of ruining his date, she came to his table and the young witch he was trying to entice and had asked him "Daddy who are you talking to? where's mommy?" that had made the witch jump faster then a cat sitting in a tub of water.

She had to wash up after that because her nose had started to bleed again, she was all to happy that she hadn't bleed all over the books. After Finnigan had stopped pouting he had taken her to Madam Malkins and bought her school-uniform. He had already collected the cauldron, the set of crystal phials, the telescope set and brass scales.

Finally standing in front of Ollivanders panting, she was relieved that it had still open. Keeping herself from fainting with pure will she entered the shop Finnigan tailing her, but not actually speaking with her, he was still a little bit put out.

A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair. Jamie felt strangely as though she had entered a very strict library. For some reason, the back of Her neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Jamie turned around.

An old man was standing before her, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop. "you are Mr. Ollivander?"

"that is indeed who I am. I was also informed about you my dear. Muggle-born witch they said, to bad. You see I enjoy seeing what Materials in a wand appeal to different family-trees, so I'm always a little disappointed to be denied the excitement. Come right over here"

Mr. Ollivander pointed in the direction of a more vacant space with a small podium "Hold out your arm. That's it."

He measured Jamie from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get as good results with another wizard's wand then your own." Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes. "That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor.

"Right then, Miss Saunders try this one. Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. just take it and give it a wave."

Jamie took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of her hand almost at once.

"No, no -here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."

She tried another dozen and was growing impatient, she was only moment's away from shouting at at the old fool to stick his stupid wands in any of his bodily orifices and just sell her one that worked. Mr. Ollivander however oblivious to the silent insults thrown at him in Jamie's head, snatched away another wand she had tried out and said.

"Mahogany and dragon heart string. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Try..."

Jamie took the wand exasperated. She felt a sudden warmth in her fingers. She raised the wand above her head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Mr. Ollivander nodded approvingly.

"Dragon heart and Mahogany, Temperamental and elegant an interesting combination" He seemed a little lost in thought.

"does this always take so long?".

Mr. Ollivander smiled a little out of breath "most of the time it takes even longer"

With nothing to do any more Mr. Ollivander was all business again "that will be nine Galleons and seven sickles"

Finnigan moved in her stead paying Mr. Ollivander.

Without saying goodbye she exited the shop only half noticing the annoying tinkling of the bell she felt very exhausted.

Jamie slowly made her way to the leaky cauldron struggling against the weakness that was rapidly spreading through her body with each step Ignoring Finnigan when he asked her whenever or not she was all-right. Feeling like she might faint, she made it up the stairs and into her room. Quickly succumbing she dropped her wand to the floor and fell on the bed, to weak to pull a blanket over herself she stopped fighting and let the exhaustion roll over her with a sight.

Lily appeared in the fire of the leaky cauldron and coughed violently, it was the first time she had

ever used the floo-network to travel and she had made the mistake of opening her mouth again when she was spinning along the grates, for which she received a mouthful of ash and dust. It was definitely not her favourite method to travel.

The barkeeper grimaced in sympathy and handed her a glass of water. She didn't drink any of it, she only sipped and spit out the grime again repeatedly while waiting for her parents to appear.

Lily's father was first to appear -in a much more graceful way then his daughter had- he merely brushed of a little dust from his shoulders. Like everywhere public her Father went he now drew in the attention of everyone in the pub. Lily knew he was somewhat famous but she didn't really understand why people had the irresistible urge to stare, for her he was just her dad.

"everything went all-right, Lil's?" He asked her.

Lily just nodded, to embarrassed to tell him that she was cleaning out her mouth until a minute ago.

But he seemed to notice the smudge around her mouth and a twinkle appeared in his emerald-green eyes.

He patted her shoulder and whispered "do you know what happened to me the first time I used floopowder?"

Lily shook her head, this story she had not heard before.

"it was right before my second year, I was with your mothers family and had never heard of travelling via fire before. I didn't even manage to say the destination properly and I landed in a shop, a street away from where I intended to go and had no idea where I was"

Lily laughed, she enjoyed these story's from her father's youth as a small boy with no idea that he was a wizard, it always made her feel better. She wished most people would see that he wasn't only a famous wizard, but also very human.

With a "whoosh" her mother appeared and walked over to them. When she saw Lily she frowned and took out a handkerchief and started to clean her face, While Lily struggled to get away embarrassed.

"I told you she shouldn't have gone first" Her mother nagged

Harry just smiled and kissed her on the cheek "your right, I'm sorry"

Lily snorted and thought _Slick move dad I guess twelve years of marriage taught you something_.

Deflated Ginny just sighted, she had never been able to defend herself against a simple apology from her Husband so far.

"so shall we move on? We don't want to stay here all day do we?" Lily asked.

She would never admit it -she didn't want people to think of her as a little girl- but she was actually very exited to get her first wand, Lily's parents smiled indulgently at her that made her think they knew exactly what was going on inside her head.

"where do you want to go first?" her mother asked her.

Lily thought for a second then answered "doesn't really Matter but let's go to the wand-store last you told me it takes ages for Mr. Ollivander to find the right wand"

"then let's split up, you" he pointed at Lily "can go to Madam Malkin's, and me and your mother can buy everything and then we can meet up at Flourish and Blots in an hour or so"

"okay but then I'll need money for the uniform" Lily replied.

Her father gave her what he thought must be enough money to buy decent robes these day's and they waved goodbye. Lily was fascinated by the diversity of stores, there seemed to be everything from pet- to book-stores, form boo-k to sweet-shops, shops selling Quidditch equipment and stores selling magical artefacts. In front of the Quidditch store was a boy approxiMately her age who seemed to be glued to the window with his nose. Walking over to the shop she looked over his shoulder, he was fixedly staring at the most recently developed broom the "Thunderbolt".

Lily marvelled at the broom, she had been a Quidditch fan ever since her father had gotten her a

experimental broom when she was smaller, Lily let out a long appreciative whistle. The boy turned around suddenly, he hadn't realised someone was standing behind him, but he seemed to relax when he saw her.

"mighty fine broom ain't it" he had a weird accent that she couldn't quite place.

"yeah" She answered still staring at the broom "I wish I could ride one of those sometime"

His smile slowly disappeared "Me too, but I only have a Nimbus two-thousand, I mean they were good, around what? Fifteen years ago?"

"more like twenty, but it's still a good broom, much better handling then the Firebolt 2 or the new Comet-series even if it doesn't have the speed"

The boy certainly looked impressed and grinned "ye know you brooms" she grinned back at him when he suddenly asked her "what's your favourite Team?"

Lily's smile vanished, she enjoyed playing Quidditch more then most people, but she had no idea of Professional players. She had never liked how emotional, irresponsible and aggressive people became over a game that should be fun, so instead she turned it around and asked him "what's yours?"

He grimaced "well after my favourite player left the team I didn't like it so much any more, but they won the world-cup two years ago" He said proudly.

_Two year? uh-oh he's talking about uncle Ronald_ Lily thought.

_The last time she had seen her uncle was a few weeks after he had won the world-cup two years ago, she was supposed to be asleep but she had awoken from her fathers raised voice and made her way silently to the stairs to listen. Through the wooden planks of the stairs she was able to see her father, the Red-orange hair of her uncle and another scalp that she couldn't associate with someone she had met before; it was very long white hair._

_Her father seemed very agitated and there was a strain in his voice Lily had never heard before "it's insane Dumbledore, you can't let him do this, everyone knows how close he is to me, it's suicide"_

"_it wasn't my idea Harry, I already tried to talk him out of it, to no avail I'm afraid. he is determined to see this through" The voice of the white-haired man sounded deep and grave._

"_Ron"- her father now said to her Uncle- "please, don't do this, I can't lose you now. What will I tell Ginny? You can't do this to our family not now so soon after Hermione..." His voice trailed of._

_Aunt Hermione? Lily thought. What are they talking about?_

_Her Uncle said with more determined and hard voice then she had ever heard "I have to do this Harry, for her. What would you have done if this happened to Ginny?"_

_Her Dad was quite for a minute before he answered "before Lily...? The same. Now? I don't know."_

"_I'll have to go underground for a long time till they trust me enough but I–will–have–my–revenge." He paused a moment and when he talked again his voice was much softer. "take care of my sister and my niece Harry"_

_Lily's father gave a short sad laugh and replied just as softly "as if you even need to tell me"_

"_true enough" Lily could hear the smile in her Uncles words._

_After a few minutes of silence Lily heard her Uncle say "Goodbye Harry, we probably won't see each other again"_

_She could see the dark frame of her dad pull Her Uncle close to him in a Hug "Take care of yourself and don't do anything stupid, well don't do anything stupider then usual"_

"_we have to go Ronald" the white-haired man said "we need to take care of everything"_

_Uncle Ron's head bobbed and he moved out of sight._

_With a loud Thump the Front door closed, but her father didn't move, rooted to the spot he still gazed at the closed door. Slowly he turned for the stairs, Lily moved out of sight with a close-mouthed squeal and ran for her room. She heard his footsteps on the stairs and on the corridor, he entered her room silently, and approached her bed. Lily tried her best to appear in a deep coMatose-like sleep and was relieved when he started to tuck the blanket more securely around her and kissed her on the forehead. She completely enjoyed these small moments when she was tugged in, or carried to bed. It made her feel completely carefree and loved._

"_I love you Lily" He Whispered before he moved away with a very tired sigh. Lily fell asleep before he had even quietly closed the door._

She still didn't know what her Uncle was doing but she knew his motivation at least, Aunt Hermione's funeral had been a week later.

Before the Sunburned boy could unlock any more memories, or made her slip anything that no-one outside the family was supposed to know Lily quickly made an excuse.

"er... Oh, damn I was supposed to get my robes, sorry I need to run"

The Boy seemed genuinely regretful of her departure and seemed almost to pout "well see you

around sometime" he shouted after her.

She waved goodbye while she ran, suddenly regretting her departure, he seemed like a good enough sort. When she entered Madam Malkin's she was a little winded and pressed her hand on a slight stitch in her left side.

"how may I help you?" came the voice of an elderly woman behind the counter, who wasn't looking up but scribbled something onto a document.

"ehm..." Lily replied slightly nervous "I need Hogwarts gear for first year"

With a sigh the witch said "Hogwarts, for a hundred years the school had the same, plain, old, boring robes and still the headmistress is not letting me design new one's" She looked up after filing the document into a map that disappeared beneath the counter, and looked at Lily confused "haven't I seen you before dear? Your one of the Weasly's aren't you?"

"em, no. I'm Related to them but I'm not a Weasly, I have my fathers surname" Lily Explained.

"ahh, right. I think remember your mother dear, she looked exactly like you. The poor thing always bought second-hand robes, with that huge family of hers. Come right over here." she pointed at a small podium.

They didn't talk much after Madam Malkin's started to work on her and so the time crawled along, threatening to continue endlessly.

A racked at the front of the shop startled Madam Malkin's so much that she poked Lily in the side with a Needle.

"OW!, Watch out, would you please"

"oh, sorry dear. Please wait, while I see what that racket is all about" said Madam Malkin's.

She moved into the direction of the -through a curtain- separated part of the shop, but she wouldn't have needed to bother since right that instant the curtain was drawn aside and the image of a furious small witch was revealed. Dragging someone behind her by his ear.

"Mum, ow, mum! really I was only standing there for like a minute 'till you appeared, I swear!" The boy shouted.

"your a lazy, lying Layabout Matthew Branstone, I send you to get your robes on your own and then I have to discover that you have been standing in front of a broom all day." His mother screamed.

Mat tried to make an excuse "I wasn't standing in front of the Thunderbolt all day, I also went ahead and had something to ea- OW" his mother effectively shut him up by tugging his ear sharply.

"I assume that means the young man needs a set of Hogwarts robes" Madam Malkin's Said with a humorous twinkle in her eyes.

"What?" The Mrs. Branstone shouted at first, but then seemed to realise where she was "oh, excuse me, yes indeed Hogwarts robes"

Mat's Mother forcefully pushed him onto the podium next to Lily as thought he would have escaped and left -huffing and puffing- for the waiting/entrance room. Madam Malkin's followed in her wake saying something about her assistant.

Lily looked at him but Mat, red-faced, wouldn't meet her eyes instead he seemed very interested with his shoes. Lily bit her lower lip to refrain from laughing.

"so" she said her Voice quivering "we meet again and if I might say in a most dignified way"

Mat's head was so red it seemed just short of exploding. Lily couldn't hold it in any more and laughed out loud. Mat scowled at her still very red but when he saw her laughing he chuckled, while insisting it wasn't funny.

"I take it your mum doesn't like Quidditch then?" Lily asked him with a grin.

Mat sighted "She hates it and she hates when I spend any time at all near brooms, she says it's dangerous and imMature. 'cept when it's to clean my room"

"well it can be dangerous I give her that, but imMature? There are plenty of adults who are fascinated by Quidditch and brooms" Lily frowned.

"I told 'er the same thing" Mat replied excitedly "but she says since they all behave like kids it doesn't count" he sighted again and apparently decided to change the topic "so you're going' to Hogwarts as well?"

"yeah Both my parents teach there so it probably won't be any different then usual" Lily told him

feeling a little disappoint.

"oh, I wouldn't say that, Hogwarts is beautiful, I live in Hogsmede so I have seen the castle. I wanted to go there my entire life, because of the Quidditch tournaments between the houses"

Is everything this guy thinks about Quidditch? Lily thought irritably.

Just when Lily wanted to ask him which house he wanted to be in Madam Malkin's returned with her assistant -who promptly began to work on Mat- making further conversation between them impossible, because the tailors required their attention.

Just when Lily's mind began to drift away again Madam Malkin's said "there you go, all finished. all that we need now is the name-tag, what did you say was your surname again?"

"uhm, I didn't. It's Potter" To Lily's great relief Madam Malkin's didn't make a big deal out of it like most people whenever they heard the name Potter. But Lily didn't like how big Madam Malkin's assistants eyes had become, while Mat didn't seem to know what the name Potter meant.

Of course he doesn't know who dad is. Since he doesn't have anything to do with Quidditch she

thought exasperated.

"okay dear that will be all, you can come to the counter with me" Madam Malkin's said.

So She said goodbye to Mat. Again. Paid for her cloths and left the shop in the direction of Flourish and Blotts. Her Parents where already waiting for her in front of the bookshop.

"what took you so long?" her father asked her.

"nothing" she mumbled in reply, not feeling like explaining her encounter with "Matthew the Quidditch-loving-layabout".

"are you sure?" her Mother asked raising one eyebrow.

Ignoring her mothers prodding Lily said "what are we waiting for anyway, lets go in"

Once inside her dad whistled appreciatively and mumbled something along the lines of "way-better-organized-then-to-my-time" under his breath. Lily's Parents left her alone since they were teaching at Hogwarts and had to be familiar with every book of each year and this year there had been a few additional books had been added to the syllabus. Lily went to the first-year Hogwarts section and picked up her books, she didn't mind books but she certainly didn't like them, if there was something interesting in them like in "The standard book of spells Grade one" which was essentially only a long list of simple spells and a few helpful guidelines, but she couldn't fathom how anyone could be interested in "A history of magic" apart from the recent history. Lily reached for the "Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection" when she noticed a person standing in the corner with her face to the wall. Lily hadn't noticed anyone else beside her was in this section, neither did the other person apparently to focused on whatever book she was reading.

Lily frowned the other girl couldn't possibly be a first year, judging from her height she shouldn't be going anywhere without her parents, she was a good head smaller then Lily and very thin.

From behind she looked almost like a magical creature with her almost white hair and pale skin.

The clerk isn't going to like that, reading without buying. Lily thought, but then again she's only a

little girl, she probably doesn't know that book stores frown upon being used as libraries.

So Lily didn't warn the girl, her parents where probably around here somewhere and she was just killing time flipping through books she randomly picked from the shelves.

When Lily emerged from between the towering stacks of books she saw her parents were already at the counter, When Lily joined them she asked "can we go to Ollivander's now?"

Her Mother smiled "of course we can"

Mat pondered on where he had heard the name Potter before, the name sounded vaguely familiar to him. He wasn't a professional Quidditch player, at least not a British one or a famous foreign, because he knew all of those. But He just knew that he had something to do with Quidditch, it was one of those things that got stuck in your subconscious mind but you could never quite put your finger on it however hard you tried. So he did the only thing that seemed prudent, he let it go.

Sometime it had to come back to him anyway.

Shaking of the name Potter his mind returned to more recent events, it had been almost twenty minutes since the red-haired girl left and he could still hear his mother occasionally grumble something about abuse of trust. In Mat's modest opinion there could be no abuse of trust if there was no trust in the first place, so he never actually bothered to go against his mother's expectations. She expected him to stand in front of the Quidditch shop all day so he did, made it bloody easy to find him too. She would probably throw a fit if he wouldn't have been there about him running of making her worry. His mother had never been very rational and Mat was just tired of trying anything to please her. The reality was she would never be pleased, she would probably drag him around by his ears even if he was the Minister of magic himself.

Something prodded him in the rib's and he looked down alarmed. The stern looking assistant of

madam Malkin's stood beneath him scowling up "asleep are we?" she asked mocking "your finished, now get out of here" and she was gone. Well that wasn't very nice for a clerk, Mat thought perplexed.

In the entrance his mother was already waiting tapping her foot impatiently. After paying for the cloths she grabbed his upper arm and dragged him out, as if he would have run away once she turned her back on him, then again he might have just to spite her but he wasn't very keen on being dragged away from the quidditch shop again.

Mrs. Branstone dragged him along like a dog who always found something interesting in the exact opposite direction of where he was supposed to go, all the while ranting madly about something incoherent.

Mat turned of his Brain.

When he turned on his Brain the next time he was standing in the book-store with a wand already in his pocket, when he tried to figure out how he got it he just got the peculiar sensation of someone taking his arm and waving it vigorously up and down. His father had been very jealous when he heard that Mat could actively ignore his surroundings, but Mat thought it was already to late for him. Over the years of being yelled at, being scared and beaten down with incoherent arguments he was nearly as mad as his wife.

Mat would never get one of those he had decided very early, destroying not only every fun there was to be had but also destroying him. No, Mat would remain a happy bachelor for life.

Turning around to make sure his mother wasn't paying attention, she wasn't, he quickly slipped into the quidditch section. His mother never paid any attention whenever they were near books, she probably thought nothing could happen there. She probably wasn't sure if he even could read, much less make sense of what the contents where about. She was wrong, he enjoyed reading almost as much as Quidditch and he enjoyed reading about Quidditch as much as actually playing it.

He walked past row after row looking for a Title he hadn't already read but came up empty-handed except for an expired version of "Quidditch through the Ages".

Which after looking at the Table of contents was a short history of how it came to be (A few good-for-nothing guy's who where tired of throwing fruit and egg's at Muggle-buildings from brooms instead started to throw at each other), to a detailed description of moves, counter-moves, tactics, players and team's since almost two-thousand years. It also contained a few extras, peculiarities and phenomena such as referee's disappearing during games, a list of creatures and human hybrids that Wanted to play Quidditch put were not allowed to for safety reasons, Mat looked through it quickly and noticed that werewolf's, vampires, half-giants where on that list. Stating a few examples and stories of how the ban came to be.

During 1480 an unregistered werewolf had made it into a team as a beater due to his unnatural strength, but was expelled and terminated as magical beast after killing two people with a Bludger that had the force of a cannonball.

_What's the difference?_ Mat thought remembering his own experiences with the aggressive ball.

Vampires had been Banned because an all-vampire team had tried to suck the blood of their opponents and refused to use broom's instead of constant transforMations of bat to human forms and back. They weren't to insistent to be allowed to continue playing Quidditch however, because it was mostly played in sunlight which lead to several teams being reduced to cinder.

Half-giants were another story, they never even got a chance to play. There was a Broom manufacturer once who wanted to make a broom able to carry the massive bulk of them, but he was forbidden to do so by the Ministry of Magic, who financed his research on new brooms, they demanded that he stop with silly and unrealistic project's as such a broom had to be carved from an entire Tree.

Enjoying the story's of what lead to ban's, which were mostly funny but sometimes included gruesome actions such as eating the judge, Mat flipped through them until he reached the next topic.

"Hogwarts Quidditch cup Winners" it read in golden letters over a list of Photographs of each year.

Mat flipped to the end, there were some good one's but none who had taken up on professional

Quidditch in recent years, Mat went back a couple of years and found it. Ronald Weasly with the Griffindor team he looked at the photograph and frowned, Weasly hadn't been the captain like he always assumed. He held up the cup together with another boy slightly smaller with a lightening shaped scar on his head.

He looked at the list of names beneath the Photograph again and read from left to right: Demelza Robins, Jimmy Peakes, Ritchie Coote, Harry Potter, Ronald Weasly... Potter! Harry 'James' Potter! The red-haired girls father (he assumed). He had been Captain of the Quidditch team that fathered famous Ronald Weasly who was single-handedly responsible for Britain winning the World-cup!

He looked at the previous year but Potter wasn't there even thought Griffindor won and he was

named as the Captain, it explained that he was given detention for almost every night that year, which included the last Quidditch game.

He turned back a Page again and there was the Griffindor team again Potter wasn't there either and someone named Angelina Johnson was Captain, but Weasly was there as keeper, he would of course come to play chaser once he was out of school. It had never occurred to Mat that Weasly could have played another position in school.

The year before that all Quidditch activities had been cancelled for the Tri-wizard tournament.

In Weasly's third year, A guy Named Wood was Captain, Weasly wasn't on the team at all and there was Potter again looking a good deal shorter and younger then in seventh year.

The year before that Quidditch was cancelled but the estiMated winners were Griffindor, it explained that the school had been an inch from closing due to un-explained attacks on students.

It seemed to Mat that every year since Potter joined the team they had either won or there was no Quidditch at all due to peculiar circumstances. Mat wondered what had happened to him, he didn't

start a carrier as Quidditch-player, but the way He and Weasly had held the Cup in their seventh year shoved clearly that they were friends. Normally only the captain holds the cup.

And that was The Girls father he had met in front of the Quidditch shop, no wonder she had acted so strange after he had said Weasly was his favourite player, she probably knew him personally. Mat wondered if she knew what he was doing these day's, nobody else seemed to. It was as if he just fell of the Grid after winning the World-cup.

The next time he saw her he was going to ask her himself he decided, just as his Mother shouted his name. Mat sighted, put the book back (it would do no good if she saw him with it) and trod back to his mother who had started in on a litany of biting comments about his mental health and rant on what a disappointment he was already proving to be.

Mat shut of his Brain.


	3. The houses

- CHAPTER THREE -

The Houses

Jamie woke when the Sensation described in the Text-book rolled over her, and opened her eyes. She had needed a lot of rest after the exhausting day in Diagon alley and she had needed almost a week to feel good enough to leave the bed again. But after that she had enjoyed herself immensely with the books she had bought, She had come back occasionally nicking the books she found interesting and now she also owned:

- Smaller curses & jinxes by Alfred Ransoff.

- Counter curses, protective-spells & Enchantments by Gerd Ransoff.

- Theory of silent incantations by Adalbert Waffling.

- Theory of Blood related magical abilities by Adalbert Waffling.

- Household & Smaller Healing Spells by Mariah welsh.

- First steps on the way to a medical career by Roberta Simmons.

Even though she had been warned not to use magic she figured they probably only had means to pinpoint the general area. And she had been proven right since no wizards or witches had stormed her room and broken her wand in half.

Finnigan had gone as well handing her a ticket and explaining that Tom would ensure she'd catch her train and that he had other things to attend to.

She had experimented so much with the spells she could nearly do all of them now, the last one, a spell with a timing element that was supposed to wake her with a sensation of elation, it was mostly used by people who hated their job's and didn't want to go. This was another thing Jamie enjoyed about Wizard-books they almost always contained trivial inforMation that was amusing most of the time.

She could rehearse every fact about every plant and potion of "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi" and " Magical Drafts and Potions", not as a quote but the general idea of what it was about.

She had begun Transfiguration smaller object's ignoring the safety-warning on the first page of "A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration" to not start without proper guidance and it had worked, a little.

The wood-splinter had at least changed shape a little.

She had used "Magical Theory", "Theory of silent incantations" and "Theory of Blood related magical abilities" to enlarge her understanding of magic and what magic could and could not do.

Jamie decided that many people were just unimaginative when they said this or that could not be

done. They just said it because they didn't know how, for example there was such a thing as the

Philosophers stone that had been able to transform metals into Gold and create a liquid that prolonged life something that was said to be impossible.

"Household & Smaller Healing Spells" wasn't really hard and written like a Muggle cooking book for middle-aged housewife's. "First steps on the way to a medical career" was a bust, half the book just explained in great detail of how to increase your chances to be accepted into a medical study, which was sucking up to everyone and generally grovelling on the ground. Bribing or blackmailing the head of the medical Facility was also considered a good way of getting things done. The other half just listed irrelevant things such as spots for catching gossip and names of reporters who would pay for it. It was a silly book and Jamie used it to try the spells from "Smaller curses & Jinxes" the only good use it could be put to and it was already half incinerated.

She hadn't touched "A History of Magic" and "The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection" because she hadn't found the time yet with all the other interesting things to read. She had only opened "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" when they were mentioned in any other book.

All in all she had had so much to do that she hardly noticed when it was time to eat, so Tom the owner of the "leaky Cauldron" had made a habit of bringing food to her room in the time she had needed rest and had just continued doing so, he seemed to assume people made her nervous or she was to weak to use the stair's which she almost was.

She had spent a month almost constantly in her room and was shocked when Tom had casually mentioned that she was to go to King's cross Tomorrow at ten so she would have enough time. Jamie was infuriated "and you only tell me this now" she had shouted at him while at the same time throwing her plate after him which he halted in the air with his wand. He hadn't taken offence at getting Plates thrown at him, he seemed to be amused of all things. "be glad I told you today, I could have 'forgotten' to mention it until tomorrow" he said mischievously all the while looking indulgently at her as if she was his favourite niece or something.

So Jamie had searched for a proper waking spell that she could use to wake her at eight in the morning. Jamie smiled as she remembered throwing her plate at tom she was only slightly miffed

that she hadn't hit, her arm still hurt a little from the exertion.

Struggling out of her blanket, she got up and went to the bath to brush her teeth. Since she had Bleed all over Finnigans date she had only had one other incident where her nose started to bleed but it was rather minor compared to some of the vicious attacks she had had a couple of years ago.

After brushing her teeth (her arms already feeling like they would fall of) she went downstairs and entered the common room, which to her surprise was full of people, parents and their children were standing and sitting around or in case of the older students small clusters of friends. She approached tom.

"what the hell is going on?" she asked frowning at a small boy who was staring at her who then began to cry and hug his mothers leg.

"always happens when it's time for the Train to Hogwarts" he replied wiping a glass with a towel

"see all the people who live to far off or just don' have any means to get to King's cross station need a place where they can safely use the floo-network since most of 'em can't apparate see?"

She did see "and you don't mind people using your place since they spend time and money eating your food"

He winked at her "knew you were a smart lass, you want breakfast?"

"I wouldn't mind" she said slightly offended at being called 'lass'

"sit somewhere and I'll get you something"

Somewhere was easier said then done, every table was occupied so she chased away a couple of older students who weren't actually eating anything. They were so surprised that they complied before thinking but then she had already occupied a seat and they seemed it wasn't worth the trouble. The 'something' Tom mentioned turned out to be a platter filled with bacon and egg's buttered toast, some cheese and a cup of tea with a lot of milk and sugar.

Watching the people around her while she ate she came to the conclusion that the Wizard community wasn't any different then the Muggle apart from the fact that everyone could do magic.

They were even dressed like Muggles but then she thought it would probably look very suspicious for a couple hundred people to run around London in Robes.

A couple of times people approached her table but turned abruptly when they saw her glaring in

their direction. After finishing her lunch she went back upstairs content that she had been able to

keep people away while she was eating. It made her so uncomfortable, people watching her eat. Gah.

Looking at the watch she bought in a Muggle shop outside of Diagon alley she noticed that it was already... half past nine! She didn't know how long it took to get to the King's Cross train station but if the Train took of at eleven she did not want to find out the hard way that it took longer then she expected.

Quickly charming her suitcase so that it floated just above the ground, she grabbed her jacket, slung her school-bag around her shoulder and went downstairs again where she quickly said goodbye to Tom and dashed out the common room entrance before he could respond. Or call her 'lass' again she thought irritable.

Once she was aboard the taxi she relaxed when the 'guy' (guy was the best description she could think of he smoked, made bad jokes and was generally insufferable) told her it was only a twenty minute ride. Jamie grimaced With him as driver it would probably seem a lot longer. But it didn't.

Jack, that was the guy's name, was actually quite easy to ignore and he didn't seem to mind he just continued to make bad jokes and puns regardless of the response.

When they arrived at King's cross Jamie was glad her time with Jack had been short. She paid him quickly and he said "what you do to get so much money lass? Hit someone over the head?" he guffawed at his own bad joke, making her eye twitch with the refrained desire to hit him. And why was everybody calling her 'lass'? Jamie swore herself that the next person who called her that would receive a good kick to the shin's.

Grinding her teeth Jamie continued into that station, where she paused. How did you get onto platform nine-three-quarters again? Jamie tried to remember she knew she had to go through a wall somewhere. But she didn't know which wall and she wasn't keen on trying out a few.

Well the logical step would probably be to go to platform nine and watch for any mysterious disappearances through wall's. It was easier then it sounded, people were making dreadful attempts at looking inconspicuous while passing through, only those who weren't trying at all managed it.

But no-one seemed to notice, it was amazing how much people could ignore if they didn't want to see it. They didn't want to believe that it was possible so they did not have to deal with it.

Entering platform nine-three-quarters Jamie already felt very exhausted even though her suitcase

was enchanted to float, she hardly took notice of the people and details on the platform. Everything appeared in a haze and before she knew it she was already in a otherwise empty compartment sitting down heavily, closing her eyes. After a while her light-headedness faded and everything stopped spinning, the feeling of having not enough blood in her head also disappeared, the kind of feeling she usually only got when she stood up to fast after lying down for a while.

Jamie breathing calmed, but her leg's and arm's were still shaking from the strain of tucking her suitcase into the intended place over the seat's. Cursing herself for wasting time researching a spell that made things float just above the ground instead of just making things lighter.

To weak to do much else Jamie leaned her head against the window and examined her fellow students and their families. The platform was crowded, most people still seemed to want to spend time with their families since the train wouldn't take of for another hour or so. Most of the older students had come without their parents and were already greeting their friends, talking about their holidays Jamie expected. Most younger students, in contrast, were with their parents looking both reluctant to leave and embarrassed at being reluctant to leave.

There were a lot of animals too, owl's being the most prominent. A few amphibians and rat's being ogled greedily by cat's. Here and there was the occasional nervous couple in Muggle cloths looking not quite comfortable in their skin eyeing those in robes apprehensively Twitching every time sparks or other kinds of harmless magic zoomed past. Small children not yet old enough to be allowed to go to Hogwarts were running around adding to the general mayhem.

Slowly people began to trickle into the Hogwarts express leaning out of windows to continue conversations. A few people entered her compartment at first but froze and quickly left when they saw her, she didn't even have to glare at them. Jamie could do just fine without noisy and petty brat's sitting all around giving her headaches.

More and more people disappeared from the platform as the amount running up and down the corridors increased. Jamie turned her wrist and looked at her watch, quarter to eleven. A muffled announcement from the platform reached inside requesting students to board the train. The people in the corridor were slowly getting on Jamie's nerves.

_Do they have to run around like they are going to pee their pants in excitement?_ Jamie thought irritably._ It's a sodding ride in a train for crying out loud!_

Every five minutes someone opened the door to her compartment assuming it was empty until they saw her and practically ran away. Working herself into a exasperated state, Jamie made herself ready to verbally tear apart anyone who dared enter her compartment next. But people seemed to get an 'imminent-sudden-death'- feeling when they got near her compartment and nobody entered for a while.

After several minutes Jamie was finally calming down a little resting her head against the window, just as she heard the clattering of someone opening her compartment door. Eye twitching, Jamie thought a foaming mouth would fit her mood right now. Whipping her head around to snarl at anyone who was daring to enter, she instead found herself staring and incapable to form words.

In the Doorway stood a girl approximately a couple of years older then herself with bright-red, or rather, Orange hair which was pulled back into a neat ponytail that still almost reached her hips. She was pale, although not as pale as Jamie herself, and had a collection of cute freckles travelling from her cheekbones over her nose. She was tall and slender but still seemed to radiate physical power.

The tension across her shirt revealed the slight curve of her bust. But the most breathtaking thing

about her were her eyes, slightly tilted with long lashes surrounding gleaming, emerald green, distinctively proud eyes. She looked nothing more then an Amazon. She was the personification of dignity.

Her cloths were the only thing that made it possible to look at her without going blind from being

dazzled. She wore Black leather boots that reached up to her shin ending under simple jeans, ripped and torn at the hem and knees. Her Black shirt was tucked into her trousers defining her figure and had a realistically and oddly sinister looking skull printed on the upper area. Over that she wore an open jacket that seemed a little to small revealing the muscles in her neck. She had a suitcase on her left side and a bag casually draped over her shoulder in her right hand.

She was a little scary.

"can I sit here?" the Amazon asked in a voice cutting into Jamie's brain sending waves of shivers

down her spine. Reality came crashing back into the vacuum that had occupied Jamie like a tidal wave

"surge..." Jamie said, swallowed and blushed then corrected herself "I mean sure"

Smiling with an amused twinkle in those deep, well-like eyes the Amazon nodded and apparently without trouble heaved her suitcase over their heads.

Jamie suppressed a groan, not only had she made a fool of herself, she also noticed with disdain that she was jealous at the ease the Amazon had stowed away her suitcase, remembering how she had nearly fainted after doing this herself.

Instead of sitting anywhere in the empty compartment the Amazon sat next to her seemingly uninhibited and gave her friendly smile, showing a hint of perfectly white teeth. Even sitting she was still towering over Jamie uncomfortably.

The ability to speak still not having quite returned Jamie managed to smile back weakly, sweat breaking out on her brow, cringing inwardly at making a fool of herself.

_- It's not fair for someone to look so singularly perfect!_ Jamie thought when she caught the gleam of teeth.

"I'm Lily. What's your name?" The Amazon asked without further ado.

Jamie Blinked stupidly - _Name? What does she... Oh! Of course name!_ She could have hit herself.

"My... my name's is Jamie" She said feeling like crawling under a rock.

- _Stop making a stuttering fool of yourself!_ Demanded a angry voice _you can do better than this!_

- _Well apparently not _another voice added acidly.

- _Damn her! it's all The Amazon's/Lily's fault why is she having this kind of effect on me?_

- _Maybe because you are the exact opposite to her?_

Jamie frowned - _what do you mean?_

- _Well, the other voice said starting to count of the thing's on imaginary fingers you're small, weak, grumpy, aggressive, decidedly un-cute, flat as a board _- Jamie looked self consciously at her chest - _generally underdeveloped and you seem to suffer from delusions._

- _Delusions? _Jamie thought indignant , that was just unfair _How am I suffering from delusions?_

- _Well, you are having a mental conversation with yourself, if that isn't delusional I don't know what is _The voice said exasperated.

Jamie paused for a moment - _don't talk to me again _she thought irrationally.

"are you all-right?" Lily asked her concerned.

Realising that she hadn't paid any attention to what Lily was saying due to her disappointing soul search "what? Oh! I... I'm fine just tired, sorry what where you saying?"

The smile returned "I was just asking which house your expecting to be in, I mean sure nobody

actually knows beforehand but..."

"house?" Jamie asked perplexed "I thought it was a castle"

Lily laughed but it didn't seem like she was laughing at her, it was a wonderful laugh that seemed to come from deep inside her, with no restrain. So Jamie decided not to take offence "I

guess that means you are Muggle-born, I mean the different school-houses. You see, there's a sorting at the beginning of the first year into the different houses depending on the abilities and personalities of students"

- _This was interesting _Jamie thought - _why haven't I heard of this before?_

"how many houses are there?" She asked.

"Four. Griffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin"

- _only four?_ Jamie didn't think that, with only four houses there was much of a chance to find one that fit her adequately.

Apparently encouraged by Jamie's obvious interest Lily elaborated "That were the names of the four founders, Godric Griffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. They were all very talented wizard's and witches, also very competitive you see, that got passed down to the houses, they probably thought a little competition could only increase the academic achievement of the students"

Jamie didn't really care for history so she decided to 'butt in' "you said Students are sorted into the different houses according to abilities and personality. How do they do that? I mean they don't know the new students so how are they supposed to grasp their potential abilities much less their personality?"

Lily didn't seem to be offended to give her the short version and began "as I understand it there weren't any houses at the founding of Hogwarts, but the four founders all quickly began to have favourites with qualities they deemed important and as to not exclude anyone or show favouritism to only a couple of students they decided to form the houses, they were already anticipating a time when none of them would remain at Hogwarts and so they created an object that could evaluate the important characteristics and talents through magical means. As I understand it they imprinted part of their own personality in the object to act in their place. I'm not really sure what it is, my father wanted it to be a surprise for my first year"

- Imprinting one's personality into an object? Apparently giving it a purpose and free will, at least to a certain degree. Jamie decided that this would be one more thing she would later research in detail.

"what house do you think you'll be in?" She asked Lily.

"Griffindor" Came the answer instantly without the hint of a doubt.

Jamie looked at her quizzically "I thought no one knows what house they'll be sorted into"

"well you don't, but the thing is that families will most often be of the same house and well, everyone from both sides of my family have been in Griffindor for generations" Lily grimaced "and now it's expected of me to follow in their footsteps" her expression was clearly displaying what she thought of that.

Not feeling like she was banging her head against a wall any more Jamie continued prodding her "so in what characteristics are the houses divided in?"

Lily's brow crunched up in thought "well there's Griffindor, which is mainly looking for qualities like honesty, loyalty, courage, fairness and such. But I don't think there are any certain talents looked for.

Then there's Hufflepuff, who are said to be loyal and hard-working, but not all that smart.

Ravenclaws are supposed to be the academic elite as intellect, logic and thirst for knowledge are their requirements. And then there's Slytherin, the only house with a really bad reputation, it is said that it has produced some of the most powerful dark wizard's and witches over the ages and the people going dark from Slytherin are more then from all other houses together. Slytherin only looks for the strong, the sly and the tricky those who don't trust and know how to survive and... well it only takes pure-blooded wizards and witches" She finished reddening slightly.

"pure-blooded?" Jamie asked her "pure concerning what?"

Lily seemed uncomfortable "concerning the percentage of wizard blood running in your veins, old families that haven't diluted their blood by marrying Muggle-born"

"you mean like you?"

Lily giggled "no I had a grandmother who was Muggle-born I don't think my blood is pure enough for Slytherin"

Jamie raised one brow "if they are that selective it's a wonder they have any students remaining"

Lily turned thoughtful "it's true that Slytherin is now considered the smallest house, but in recent

years the purity of blood was pushed into the background out of need, and now there are exceptions when even half-bloods are being accepted if they have the necessary qualities"

"half-blood?"

Lily nodded "wizards and witches with only one magical parent"

The news about the houses was interesting, She already knew that she would neither be in Griffindor or Hufflepuff because she neither cared if she was fair or honest and neither would she stop to back-stab anyone if it furthered her goals. She wouldn't Mind Slytherin after all she wanted nothing more then to survive, but since it didn't accept Muggle-born Jamie guessed that was a no as well. Only left Ravenclaw, she didn't think she was all that smart but she certainly had enough thirst for knowledge to make up for it. But in the end it didn't really Matter she would still do anything to survive regardless of house.

She noticed Lily watching her contemplate "I think I'll be in Ravenclaw, it seems the most logical Conclusion"

Lily guffawed "well you are certainly already talking like one"

Jamie smiled at her but then had to hide her face behind the back of her hand as she was forced to yawn hugely. She apologize, mostly because she was embarrassed rather than sorry.

Lily hit her forehead "oh my god, I'm so stupid. You said you were tired and yet I ranted on about school. Why don't you sleep for a while?" she said "I'll wake you before we arrive at Hogwarts"

Jamie nodded too tired to make her Brain continue to work and was already asleep when her head softly hit the cold window.

Jamie felt at ease and more peaceful then she had in a long time, pressed against something warm. A hand slowly combed through her hair. The sensation slowly faded. A whisper of memory's.

Jamie woke suddenly, she felt completely awake. Why had she dreamt of someone stroking her

hair? As far as she remembered no one had ever done that. She did not feel the comforting hand on her any more but she was still pressed against something warm, lifting her head she turned to look at Lily, who's shoulder her head had been resting on and who's arm she was still hugging convulsively.

"good morning" Lily said bright amusement clearly showing around her eyes.

Jamie withdrew explosively, flustered and mortified. Eyes wide open and mouth hanging, but to slack to actually make a sound other then an embarrassed moan.

"You know it's a good thing you don't drool" Lily said looking at her seriously "or else this would be way more awkward"

Jamie wanted to sink into the ground, then she noticed the sly grin on the other girls face. Covering her face with her hands, she still ashamed but at the same time trying to restrain her laughter. To no avail.

"you could have woken me" Jamie accused after her laughter had subsided considerably.

"well it wasn't much of a discomfort, I mean you look like you weight essentially nothing" Lily still had the enchanting twinkle of amusement in her eyes.

Jamie found herself staring into those emerald eye's again and quickly turned away. The green countryside that had been prominent after the express left platform nine-three-quarters was replaced by dark woodland, the number of trees was large but not big enough to account for the lack of sunlight so she judged that she had slept at least a few hours. Jamie suddenly regretted that she had gone to sleep for this was all she would see of the world for the next seven years, she wasn't the most emotional person on the planet by far, but seven years was a long, long time.

She turned around again to find Lily looking at her and asked "do you know when we arrive?"

Lily nodded "you actually awoke quite timely I think they will announce our imminent arrival in a few min-" but she was cut short by a gong and a voice announcing "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

"less then a few minutes" Lily corrected herself "we'd better change, we have to go to dinner in our School-robes" with that she stood and made a grab for her suitcase, pulled it down, opened it and removed her robes.

Jamie followed suit but got stuck immediately on the 'grabbing her suitcase' part, she could grab it just fine but the problem was getting it down without killing herself, never mind the killing part the main problem was actually getting it down at all, it seemed even harder then pushing it up. Jamie almost hung from the handle of her suitcase growing frustrated to the point of tears. Suddenly a pale arm passed over her right shoulder grabbed the case and easily lifted it from the storage place, Lily then placed the suitcase on the opposite seats without saying a word.

"thanks" Said Jamie while not feeling thankful at all but actually quite angry and frustrated, it had been the first time since she felt that way since learning of her magical talent she had found it harder and harder to remain calm whenever she was confronted with her own weakness. After she had awoken from her coma she had often been frustrated at the weakness in her arms, so frustrated that she wanted to kick things, which made her painfully aware of the weakness in her legs which only increased her frustration.

Lily remained silent which was for the best Jamie supposed, since she would probably lash out at anyone at the moment anyway. Opening her suitcase Jamie produced her robes from her suitcase and quickly pulled them over her casual cloth's, closing her suitcase with a click she turned around to find Lily had already stowed her suitcase away again. Deciding it was better of where it was she sat down again next to Lily who was once again looking at her with those captivating eye's.

Jamie tried to tame her temper a little, until the train got noticeably slower and finally stopped.

People had already spilled into the corridor from other compartments and were slowly pushing out of the exits. Jamie remained seated until most people had cleared out, she had no desire of being crushed to death by other students, all of whom where bigger than her.

Lily left and Jamie followed just behind, using the taller girl as a shield through the throng of people, the noise seemed deafening to her but still she clearly heard a deep rumbling voice over the heads of the chattering crowd.

"First years this way. First years over here"

Breaking through onto a reasonably clear area Jamie caught sight of the biggest man she had ever seen, Standing on the tips of her toes Jamie would have a hard time to come even with the wide girth of his belly, everyone would seem like a child next to him. Even Lily only made it just under his chest (if she stood on the tip of her toes). Apart from being unreasonably tall and wide he had also a big untrimmed beard reaching for his chest, his hair was as long as his beard and framed his face casting shadows across it making him look even more grim, his hair was mostly brown but with the first traces of grey in it.

Just then the Giant spotted them, Jamie was getting ready to leap out of the way should he charge for she had read that Giant's had a terrible temper and blood-lust but he didn't, instead his face split into a wide grin and he addressed Lily.

"'ey there Lily, was wondering what kept you" Then his gaze turned to Jamie who was sort of

peeking around her "ah! I see you've been lookin' out for the little lass didn you?"

Jamie sniffed indignantly. little lass? Who was the big blundering fool to call her that. Well he probably had the right to call anyone little. And what was with the 'lass' all the time?

Jamie knew that she had promised herself that she'd kick the next person in the shin's who called her that but The giant probably wouldn't even notice, plus she was a little afraid he might accidentally squash her.

"Hello Hagrid, I see you are well, I am too, thank you for asking" Lily said with a smile.

Hagrid laughed, but it sounded more like Clashes of thunder "I see ya' still have your smart mouth now get'n line with the others or i'll tell yer dad what a petulant and horrible person you are"

Lily's smile only broadened at the apparent threat and with a wave joined the other first years.

"eh... you know the... big... eh... brutish person?" Jamie asked her restraining from putting actual insults to word.

Lily laughed "he's not brutish he's actually quite gentle, although I admit the sight of him could probably scare a dragon. And jep I know him he's acquainted to my dad and the gamekeeper of Hogwarts, also the teacher for care of Magical creatures, you know his bulk comes in handy when he has to wrestle down ill-tempered yeti's and stuff"

Jamie looked at her blankly to show her that she was not amused, but Lily cackled mischievously which made it impossible to remain... well, unamused.

A few more stragglers joined the group of first years, which now numbered about sixty people.

Hagrid quickly counted the people seemed satisfied and shouted for them to follow him and not to linger. Together they moved down a narrow steep path surrounded by trees, the path was difficult when you didn't stumble you slid on large, smooth chunks of rock. Jamie doubted that the path saw much use over the years.

Jamie just wanted to ask how long they would have to continue the strenuous descent when Hagrid called from the front "just 'round the bend now you'll see Hogwarts for the first time"

Perched atop a high mountain on the other side of the lake it stood, windows sparkling in the starry sky, a vast castle with many turrets and towers. It was build so that the side of the castle was folding around the rounded cliff. Jamie had to admit it was quite impressive although it would have been even more impressive if no magic had been involved in it's construction. Many people were Oh-ing and Ah-ing as if such a reaction was expected if not demanded.

Jamie found that the number of small row-boat's was more impressive then the castle itself, in the black water near the bank dandled an astonishing number of them more then would be needed by twice the number of people if arranged in a line one could have probably walked to the bottom of the castle.

Exhausted from the climb Jamie stopped listening to Hagrid deciding whatever he had to say were obvious safety notices such as not leaning overboard to much. Stepping into a boat with Lily she ignored the two other people climbing into the little boat, one was a haughty looking fellow with blond hair and the other was a pompous girl who reached out to shake Lily's hand and seemed, to Jamie's amusement, quite irritated when Jamie ignored her offered hand.

The boats seemed to be enchanted seeing as they were moving on their own, the small fleet steadily gliding towards the bottom of the cliffs under Hogwarts. Jamie didn't notice that Hagrid had told them to put down their heads until Lily pulled her down, quite suddenly it seemed they were surrounded by hanging ivy when they could come up again they seemed to be in a underground mooring only the flickering torches supplied any light slowly coming to a halt the boats stopped with a gentle bump to the quay.

Once they all had solid earth, or rather stone beneath their feet, they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, Oak front door. Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door. A few moment's later an extremely stout woman opened the Giant doors.

"thank you Hagrid for bringing them here I know how busy you are nowadays, will you join us at the feast later on?"

"wish I could professor but I am still awaiting the delivery of Nifflers for my fourth year class."

Jamie wondered what the hell a Niffler was, but Hagrid had already rushed of without awaiting a reply from the stout Professor, who now turned around to face them a warm smile splitting her elderly face.

"hello there, my name is Professor Sprout, I hope I will see a lot of you in Hufflepuff since I am the head of house..."

Jamie certainly did not want to be in Hufflepuff if she was the head of house. Professor Sprout might be a nice enough person but of the kind that always insisted to take another cookie no Matter how many you already had, until you snapped and stuffed her own mouth with her damn cookies while madly shouting "Why don't you take another cookie! Why don't you take another cookie! How do you like that? Hmm? Hmm?".

"if you would please follow me" Professor sprout continued, still with a warm smile on her face as she turned around The entrance hall was so big you could have fit an average sized house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors. They followed Professor Sprout across the flagged stone floor. Jamie could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right -the great Hall was obviously already full of people- but Professor Sprout showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

"I officially Welcome you to Hogwarts," said Professor Sprout "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour."

_Who cares about a retarded cup that you won't even be allowed to keep, which will just be passed to the next house that wins it? It was just a stupid dust-trap anyway. _Jamie thought.

"... I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. You want to make a good impression. I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor Sprout. "Please wait quietly."

She left them alone in the chamber and despite her instruction to be quiet, everyone started chatting in low whispers with one or another person. Someone from behind tapped Lily on the shoulder and when they turned around they saw a boy with Gold-blond hair who was grinning broadly at them.

Lilly apparently knew him since she greeted him with a smile "happy to be here away from your mother are we?"

His grin broadened further causing his eyes to close slightly, it was the most mischievous grin Jamie had ever seen, a vendor looking like that would not be able to sell anything because everybody would think he's a crook.

"happy but most of all relieved" he replied showing all his white, straight teeth "but I expect she wrote letters to the school to make sure I don't try to smuggle in a broom or something"

This seemed to be a cue from a previous conversation because both Lilly and the boy laughed while she was left to look puzzled, Lily noticed and said "Jamie this is Matthew..:" - "Mat, please just call me Mat only my mum calls me Matthew when she is angry with me which means always" Mat broke in but Lily ignored him - "I met him in Diagon Alley, Mat this is Jamie"

"Hi" he said grinning still more broadly holding out his hand, only when she completely ignored it did his smile waver slightly but it did not disappear "nice to meet you Jamie"

Jamie didn't return the greeting, the guy made the hair on her neck stand up.

Mat turned towards Lily with a questioning frown and received a shrug in reply, so he steered into another direction "what houses do you think you'll be in?"

Again Lily replied without hesitation "Griffindor" and when Jamie didn't reply but narrowed her eyes at Mat added "and Ravenclaw most likely" she frowned at Jamie disapprovingly as to say she was disappointed in her manners, which made her feel slightly abashed.

"so that means one of every house, I'll most likely be in Hufflepuff since my parents went there"

Mat said beaming.

"there are four houses" Jamie said, speaking for the first time.

"what?" Mat asked truly bewildered.

"there are four houses, you forgot Slytherin"

"oh... ah, okay. One of every reputable house" he corrected himself.

Lily turned her disapproving frown at him, but it didn't seem to have any effect at all, he was just looking back questioningly as if to ask what he had done wrong.

"if Slytherin is so dreadful why does it still exist?" Jamie asked him "why didn't the headmaster or headmistress close it years ago?"

Mat looked at her as if she was daft "because of Tradition, you can't just go and cut out a peace of Hogwarts that makes it into what it is, no Matter if the part is horrible and bad"

"How do you even know it is horrible and bad?" Jamie fired back.

"everyone knows. it's common knowledge" Mat seemed to get annoyed "then why would anyone even go there?"

"you can't choose where you're going, your character is determined and everyone who's shady gets into Slytherin" Mat's voice had turned slow as if talking to a four year old.

"Oh and that isn't a biased and hateful statement at all is it?"

Lily broke in "I agree that it might not be the most diploMatic statement, but biased? I don't think so, there have been just to many Slytherins who turned out to be dark, that at least a cautious approach would be wise"

"and it's not hateful it's just the truth" Mat said with conviction.

Jamie looked at Mat disbelieving as she saw that he was utterly convinced that a group of people were most likely thieves if not murderers because they got sorted into a house at the age of eleven but before she could say anything Professor Sprout was back.

"come on you youngsters" she said "the Sorting ceremony is about to start, form a line and follow me"

Jamie had never seen such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor Sprout led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, ghosts shone in a misty silvery glow. Jamie noticed that the ceiling looked like the sky outside dark and full of stars, she really didn't need the poke in the ribs from Lily and the whispered explanation that it was charmed. Jamie looked at her and raised her left brow, but Lily just grinned and shrugged as if to say "hey, only wanted to be helpful".

Professor sprout stopped next to a four-legged stool and produced a sheet of parchment from her robes. At first Jamie thought she wasn't seeing right but after rubbing her eyes there was still a very old shabby hat atop of the stool.

Was this supposed to be a joke?

Lily anticipated the song of the hat her father had always told her it was somehow connected to the school, so what it said had deeper meaning so you should pay attention. A rip near the brim opened wide, like a mouth taking a deep breath and it began to sing.

A Thousand years ago,

(or so),

Hogwarts was founded,

By the four who loathed,

Ignorance in Abundance.

Brave and bold Griffindor,

Taught the students out of adore,

Intellectual and wise Ravenclaw,

Enjoyed nothing more, then to form and draw,

Those of Minds like her.

Earnest and fair Hufflepuff,

took anyone working hard,

Who was up to the stuff,

and those that were left apart,

Cunning, proud Slytherin,

only wanted the pure,

Those strong enough to take everythin',

and with a lust for power.

They realised that they would not last,

forever and created me not to brag,

to sort wise and fast,

As their substitute,

for this institute.

In times of peace,

It is not wise in the least,

To ignore the dark,

As it is the shark.

Now don't be glum I am quite warm,

They not created me to do you harm,

Put me on your head,

and soon you'll sit, instead,

At home with those like you.

The whole room burst into applause, except for those at the green table of which most weren't even listening. Slowly the applause faded away as Professor Sprout cleared her throat imploringly.

In a loud clear voice that belied her age she spoke "I will now call out your names to be sorted, please be quite and stay in line until you hear your name"

"Adburn, Derrin" the haughty looking boy who had been on the boat with her stepped up to the chair and sat the hat atop his head. It took a while before it opened it's mouth again and shouted "SLYTHERIN"

There were a lot of "buh's" from three tables which were answered with cheers and rude gestures from the table in green colours with the silver snake.

"Ackley, Josephine" a timid girl stepped forward and carefully placed the hat on her head but it still promptly slid over her eyes, on which she gave a small whimper. Perhaps she was afraid of the dark? It didn't take as long as before when the hat called out "HUFFLEPUFF"

The table with the Badger as logo applauded enthusiastically.

The sorting continued and pretty soon there came the call "Branstone, Matthew"

Mat picked up the hat and lazily put it on, it took the longest time yet until it shouted "GRIFFINDOR!"

Lily groaned, not because she hated Mat just because she didn't think he would be Material for stimulating conversations, Jamie had been much more interesting there were so few people who really thought about what they said. She also didn't like Mat's openness, to her it was like saying "hey is there any reason someone wouldn't like me?" she was much more comfortable with the shy, unrevealing type like Jamie.

Mat stood up, left the hat on the chair took the time to grin at her and sat down next to the Griffindor ghost Nearly headless Nick, Lily rolled her eyes, the way he was grinning you would have thought he had just accomplished a back flip through a burning hoop.

Lily looked at the Teachers table, where her parents sat, her mum smiled at her when she caught her eye and her dad winked, the sorting continued and Lily was getting bored "P" was way down the list but actually it was faster then she had expected McMillan, Anna became a Slytherin and then it came.

"Potter, Lily"

Lily flinched, she had been afraid of this opening one eye experimentally, everyone was staring at her even those ignoramuses like Mat who didn't know what Potter meant where interested in a girl that was one of their Professors children. Uncomfortable Lily went forward and picked up the hat and sat it on her head.

A little voice that sounded a little like a house-elf in her opinion started to speak - _ahh, descendant of Weasly's and Potter's long history of Griffindors and jepp it's all there, courage, boldness, assertiveness and my, my, the strong drive to do the right thing. I don't think we really have to talk about this you'll go directly to_ "GRIFFINDOR!"

It sounded like a bomb went of so loud was the racket from the Griffindor table, grimacing Lily went to the Griffindor table and sat down next to Mat who was still smiling and when she asked him why a little snappishly he replied "because I am not in Hufflepuff this will drive my mother mad, she will probably say I back-stabbed the family or something" Despite having a very disturbing relationship with his mother it still cheered her up somehow and she smiled back.

Lily knew her mother was the youngest of seven children and sometimes she was a little envious since she was an only child, her mother had been unable to conceive after her birth, she also did not have any cousins still in school, her uncle Ron had disappeared without a trace. Uncle Fred and Uncle George where not the type to get children and to busy successfully and single-handedly taking over the market on joke products anyway. Uncle Percy had died in the war before she was born and she only knew him from Photos. Uncle Charlie was in Romania and could not be described other then as a Lady-killer, every week he had a new conquest. Only Uncle Bill had Children with Aunt Fleur but their Children where already out of school.

Nearly headless nick leaned through Mat who gave a start and told her "that was nothing compared to what happened when your father was sorted, just think this times ten I nearly went deaf"

"surely ghost can't go deaf I mean they are just images of dead people you don't even have eardrums"

Nick wrinkled his nose at Mat "ah, I know people like you, never enjoyed their company much I have to say, it was just a figure of speech" and apparently offended he floated away.

Lily shook her head until Mat asked her what he had done "you where yourself, that's bad enough" He was about to say something but was interrupted by -

"Saunders, James"

Lily looked at the extremely pale girl, she looked a little nervous, but she confidently marched forward. Someone at the Griffindor table made an "Aaaww!" sound and snickered when she glared at him, she grabbed the hat, turned, sat and put it atop of her head.

Everything went dark.

- _How where you created?_ she asked in her mind.

- _My, my if this isn't a candidate for Ravenclaw, did you know I could read your thought's? _A small voice asked her.

- _I suspected, nobody talked to you and you clearly have a personality, so I assumed that you must be able to read minds, also the fact that you are a hat and not, for instance mittens gave me a clue._

- _Yes you do seem to have everything for Ravenclaw, attentive, intelligent, concentrated and my, my large need for knowledge. And yes you are quite right you don't have to consciously form thought's at me I can still read them._

_You are not afraid to speak your mind, boldness is a good quality for Griffindor._

_Let me see a little deeper, ahh, yes here we are, desperate need for survival, it is the pool from which you draw your need to know, to learn and your Hunger for power, you do not think knowledge is enough to survive if you do not have enough power, you don't have to be uncomfortable that I can read your deepest desires I am a hat not a person don't forget. What do you say if I tell you that Knowledge by itself is also a Power, more so for wizards even then most people._

- _I thought I didn't have to think at you?_

- _Only when you are sure about things but if you haven't given much thought to what I ask, I will only know if you first contemplate it_.

- _Oh, okay. Well, I do agree that knowledge is a power but there are limitations to everything, knowing how I can safely climb a mountain does not mean that my body is up for it._

- _Aha, so what is your solution to the limits of the power of knowledge?_

Jamie paused for a moment already anticipating where this was going.

- _Pursue power of any kind._

- _Even if that means dark magic? Or going against your morals?_

- _Depends on the situation, but yes.._

- _Ahh, this is what I have been waiting for yes, yes. A survival instinct greater then anything the mark of a true Slytherin._

- _But Slytherin only wanted Pure blooded people!_

- _That was only secondary to him but still important, did you think Slytherin was Pure-blood? Because he wasn't, he lived in an age where the wizardry Population was declining for a reason unknown to me. More and more Wizards and witches had Children with Muggles, who pursued and killed Wizards at that time. Slytherin was such a child, his mother was a witch who had married a muggle man, when Slytherin first displayed signs of his powers his father killed his mother, who would not defend herself against someone she loved, he then tried to kill his son, but Slytherin who had just witnessed his mothers murder acted before him. He ran away and found shelter at a Wizard-family called Griffindor where he became best friends with the son. Slytherin not only feared that because of the mixtures between wizards and Muggles the blood would be diluted and wizards would eventually die out he also feared that by accepting muggle-born witches and wizards the Muggles would gain magical support from them to eradicate wizards and domesticate those 'pet'-Wizards to do their bidding. Slytherin saw the potential of slavery and destruction for everything that he was and loved._

- _So I can enter Slytherin?_

- _Slytherin instructed this hat specifically for those with the instinct to survive and who where seeking power. Do you wish to hear what he had to say? If you do not wish to hear his message I will enter you in Ravenclaw._

- _If you will Answer my questions first. How where you made?_

- _I was made from Griffindors Favourite hat, they planted their personality's inside me and used a living house-elf to mediate their decisions._

Jamie swallowed - _you mean they, what? banished it into the hat?_

- _Not the right term but you have the idea, they thought the timid elf would balance their assertive characters nicely._

- _How do you give an object a personality?_

- _The spell that enchants Portraits is a variation from it, I do not know the spell but you should be able to find it in the library perhaps the restricted section._

- _Have... Have you ever given the message of Slytherin to anyone else?_

- _Yes._

- _To who?_

- _Many people. you have to know that I am over a thousand years old._

- _Then only name the most recent one_.

- _Tom Riddle._

The name didn't tell Jamie anything and sounded a little silly to boot. She was just interested about what Slytherin might say, perhaps he could tell her anything that helped her to achieve enough Power. He was after all considered one of the most powerful wizards of the last thousand years, even if he was of dubious Nature.

-_ Okay, tell me then._

- _Are you sure? There will be no way back, you will not be able to repeat anything that the message tells you, there is an enchantment in place that will make it impossible._

With some trepidation Jamie thought about it seriously, but she wanted to know anyway. - -_Yes, yes. now tell me already._

The voice that came next was not the one of the Sorting hat, it was deeper and melodious instead of annoying but it sounded like a recording and not like someone was actually addressing her.

_I am Salazar Slytherin and I am installing this massage against the knowledge of the other founders for should they find it, they would destroy it._

_You who hears this, you have proven to be like me, a survivor not cowed by authority to pursue the "right" path. Soon I will be gone from Hogwarts and the overwhelming belief that clouds the judgement. I have tried to persuade my dear friend Godric but he is already lost, as much as I love him I have to say that he is a fool. He cannot see the threat that the Wizard nations are to themselves the possibility that Muggles might eradicate us slowly, by thinning the bloodlines is not the only problem, not even a pressing one although the new Generation of Wizards is yet less powerful then the last._

_The standards have been lowered again after a hundred years, the people live shorter lives like the Muggles, already I have outlived some of those that I taught, most died at the hands of Muggles or wizards with different opinions, some passed away from old age. But that is not a pressing problem._

_The urgent problems I am speaking of have to do with the newly founded idea that some magic is bad, and already what is considered "dark"-magic now is forbidden to be taught at school or even used, we are clipping our own wings, doing what Muggles have tried for centuries and in this I see a chance of success._

_Compared to the ban on certain magic the inability of new generations to perform more powerful magic is like a flea riding the beast, Hogwarts has already gone against one of the ideas it was supposed to stand for and now promotes ignorance, I was outvoted by my fellow founders._

_My name is in disgrace, people call me a promoter of hate, they say I am the reason Muggles try to kill Wizards and that they weren't always wrong as long as people like me exist, they say that if we give our hand to them in acceptance and love they will accept it._

The voice turned sad now rather then angry.

_They won't, they do not need a reason other that we have power and they do not. They are scared of us because we can hurt them not because we ever did or ever will. They won't be satisfied until we are all dead or under their control so that they can use the power for themselves. Wizards are speaking about a peace treaty with the Muggles, soon they will come out of hiding. A lot of people will die and we will be unable to defend ourselves properly and eventually forced to go into hiding again. A shadow of what we were._

_Already Athiellis was destroyed, one of the greatest wizard city's and not even by the Muggles, but by my fellow wizards, by those that were acting on the behalf of "peace" because Athiellis had refused to sign the treaty for banning so called dark magic. I had family in Athiellis, distant but still a few people I knew, all they wanted is to live in peace, so they fled from their homes to escape prosecution._

_Soon "dark"-magic will be too feared for only people who are interested to learn it. Magic isn't something that makes you human it is just a tool and as such not necessarily needed and I would agree to some parts of the ban if everyone would think that way, but there will always be those that strive to maintain magic for the sake of power and if only these people have magic everyone would suffer, even the Muggles, although I have to be honest that I don't particularly care for those._

_If you are interested in not only your survival but the survival of many, many people and the maintenance of magic or reconstruction of magic, depends on how long this message takes to seep through to anyone, then I implore you to learn everything you can about Dark magic, magic in general really and try to change the zealous believe that some magic is wrong._

_I wouldn't try to talk people out of it since you are in school and anyone will believe they know better then you because they are older and when you are old enough to be taken seriously they will accuse you of treason and if they find any kind of evidence that you perform dark magic they will kill you or send you to prison, perhaps they won't even wait for evidence._

_Saying that dark magic is not necessarily bad won't be accepted, all they will hear is that you think murder is good and all Muggles should die. I have the opinion that everything would be much easier if Muggles did not exist, much the same as I think everything would be easier if no rapid dog's existed, but they have a right to be here as much as we do._

_I have a secret Chamber here in Hogwarts where I have stashed as many things about "dark"-magic that I think will be banned, I have placed a Protector in Charge of the Chamber it is the Logo of my house, I say this hoping that it wasn't changed. If it was changed I tell you this as safeguard, be wary and close your eyes._

_Godric suspects that I have done things without including the rest of the founders at Hogwarts and he wants to know what I have done, I am afraid it will soon come to a confrontation I hope I will have left before then, He will probably search for the Chamber but he will not be able to open it, I have made sure of that, only my heir can open it, only one who carries my heritage can open it, only you can open it._

_The entrance is marked by the protector and will open when you plead for entrance._

_The Voice was growing weaker and fainter._

_There is one last thing I must tell you, be wary of your passions, love or friendship, I am not saying don't love and don't make friends, but never choose passion over reason, It will kill you._

_My mother loved my father dearly, she was to blinded by her passion to see the truth behind her husbands nature and so she died foolishly for her love._

_So bear it in mind when I say this._

_Passion, Rules, Reason._

Jamie shuddered in excitement, this was it! This was her ticket to Power, her ticket for survival.

The Voice of the sorting Hat came back.

- _You have now heard the message you will be sorted finally and irrevocably into _"SLYTHERIN!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Lily was shocked never had she thought that the timid, considering girl would join Slytherin, she was a Muggle-born, not even a speck of Wizards blood! that the hat even sorted her into the house was unthinkable. Jamie had gone to the chair like anyone else but she sat there for the longest time yet. Professor sprout had even looked at the headmistress with a raised brow asking for instructions.

Jamie had her head cocked to the side as if listening closely and then suddenly it had shouted out it's decision but unlike the haughty looking boy nobody was booing, the Slytherins weren't cheering either, when she looked at them she noticed that most who did not look indifferent where not pleased, apparently they didn't want someone as weak as her in their midst. Jamie calmly went and sat next to the haughty boy ignoring everyone as much as she herself was ignored, she looked lost in thought.

Lily felt sad, she had thought that she would make a friend already who was not impressed by her fathers name, she had not thought that Jamie was Slytherin Material, not only because she was a Muggle-born but because of her character, she looked very pale and sick and was a little cold but Lily had thought that was because of bullying and not because she just did not care, she had been so considering of her wording that she seemed almost slow like she was thinking everything through three or four times.

The first moment Lily saw her she thought what a beautiful girl she would have been if not for the sickly look, but she was still pretty, the cold attitude suited her eyes and her paleness and she was kind of cute and awkward the way she almost hung from her suitcase and pointedly refused to put it back up once it was down.

Lily was just wondering when the food would finally appear when the sorting had finally finished with "Zabini, Dug" who became another Slytherin and professor McGonagall Cleared her throat until people went quiet "my predecessor never enjoyed saying much before people's belly's weren't full and I do think this is a wise move because nobody will listen anyway so, dig in"

Her father had always told her how prim and proper McGonagall had always been perhaps she was loosening up a bit in her age but then all thought left Jamie as food filled the table. Lily certainly had never gone hungry at home but this was still impressive the whole table was loaded to the edge with roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and a lot more.

People around her addressed her sometimes but turned away when they noticed that her mouth was too full to answer anything and once or twice Lily almost chocked when she tried to swallow fast enough to answer, people looked at her a little concerned because she was consuming four times the amount of food anyone else seemed to,

Mat was gaping at her "do you always eat so much so fast?" not wanting to choke a third time she just nodded. "it's a wonder you haven't long since gone fat" Lily stopped chewing for a few moments and tried to look indignant, but it only caused Mat to laugh so she continued chewing with a shrug.

Some time after The main course disappeared and desert appeared, not being a dessert person and having eaten enough anyway Lily looked at the Slytherin table. A few of the older students where throwing peanuts and other small things at Jamie who apparently ignored them serenely, angry Lily balled her hands, this was what real Slytherins were like, damn bullying git's.

She just wanted to inform a teacher when there was a loud clang and shouts from the Slytherin table when she looked back a silver bowl was still spinning weakly on the floor and the heads and faces of the people who had thrown stuff at Jamie were covered in ice-cream a teacher rushed over and you could hear Jamie saying very loudly "it was an accident professor I didn't mean to" which was a lie considering the way she had looked at the bowl and the bully's as if considering the trajectory.

The teacher told Jamie to eat more carefully and gave the two other people the permission to use the bathroom to wash up but they had to return in twenty minutes or they'd get detention for missing the headmistresses welcoming speech.

They retreated glaring at Jamie for being unwilling prey, but this time Jamie really was ignoring them, she was looking back at Lily and when their eyes met Jamie grinned lopsidedly, it was the first time she had seen Jamie smile and it was like pulling back a curtain, revealing a completely different person behind the first timid layer, their eye-contact broke when the girl next to Jamie engaged her in conversation.

The people who wanted to talk to Lily while she was eating noticed that she wasn't stuffing herself any more and also engaged her in conversation. An older student with a prefect badge talked first

"so, you are Professor Potters daughter. funny you don't look like him at all"

"I get my looks from my mother" Lily replied.

"oh, who's she?" someone else asked.

"Professor Weasly"

A few people seemed surprised but the prefect was shaking his head at them "wasn't that obvious I mean just look at them, they could be twins, well if it wasn't for the age difference" he added when he saw Lily glaring at him.

Nick, the ghost joined the conversation "With parents like those, I think we can only expect great things from you. Knew them when they were in school, your mother was always top of every class and your father... well... let's say his greater achievements were always outside of classes" he coughed conspiratorial.

The students suddenly interested in what kind of shenanigans their professor had gotten into as a student were suddenly pestering Nick, who politely refused to reveal anything more.

Lily was still thinking about what Nick had said "we can only expect great things of you", it depressed her somehow, nobody really knew if she wouldn't screw up completely, or that she would be able to perform the simplest spells they just assumed that she would be because her parents where somewhat famous and considered prodigies. And even if she was good at everything it would still not be seen as an achievement because nothing less had been expected.

She didn't know why but she suddenly felt very much like going back home already even though her parents where here. She looked at the teachers table but her parents weren't paying any attention to her, her dad was talking with Uncle Bill who was teaching Ancient runes and her Mum was speaking to professor sprout.

As her gaze continued down the teachers table she noticed that Professor McGonagall was standing, everyone went quite in moments.

"I will now make the start of term announcements, First years should note that the forest on the

grounds is forbidden to all pupils unless in presence of a teacher. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should take part of try-outs the list is hanging out on the notice board. I should remind you all that you're not supposed to do magic between classes in the corridors. Classes will begin tomorrow after breakfast I hope you will all be well rested until then."

That seemed to be the cue, everyone got up and moved towards the great hall's doors, she was just about to wonder where she was supposed to go when she heard a boy cry out "first years over here, come on we don't have all night. Hey you! first year! get over here dammit"

Lily joined the crowd forming around the tall blond boy just as he said "right. that everyone? okay people listen up, my name's Clemens, James Clemens, we're going to the Griffindor common room in a closed group, don't leave, if you're separated and don't know your way around Hogwarts it could take you days to find your way back, so let's just not let that happen, okay? anyone got questions or anything the first week you can ask me or Haley here" with his thumb he pointed at a tall girl with brunette hair pulled into a braid at the nape of her neck with a very serious quality to her mouth "we're fifth year prefects, everyone ready? right then follow me"

So they went along corridors where armours hooted at them, portraits whispered when they passed, staircases that started to move or change direction just to spite you, all in all it was so confusing Lily had no idea how anyone could find their way through the school at all, but apparently it was no problem for the fifth year prefects, so that pretty soon they stood in front of the portrait of a very fat woman.

Clemens turned around "okay , people you should remember this portrait since it's the entrance to the Griffindor common rooms, the password is _'Lion'_, it will change every quarter of the year so you'll only have to remember the password four times a year"

At the moment he had said 'Lion' the portrait had swung open revealing a cosy round room full of squashy armchairs with a couple of fireplaces, the opposite side of the room was practically only glass with all the windows and Lily realised that they were in a tower facing the lake.

Then was the first time Haley opened her mouth "first year girls follow me, I'll show you your room" and she turned around leaving them to follow in her wake.

Lily said goodnight to Mat and hastily followed Haley and the other first year girls, they moved up a spiral staircase with the occasional door at the side "you'll be living in the room from the graduates, it's the only room you'll live in over your seven years here, there won't be a rotation from year to year or something like that. Well here we are" she said and opened the door.

The room was huge there was a small desk for every person and a huge one in the middle of the room, there was also a cupboard for everyone and a four-poster bed hung with deep red, velvet Curtains. Their luggage was already in the room.

"Make yourselves ready for tomorrow and pick your bed's, you should go to bed sooner rather then later, it's going to be rather exciting" then she smiled for a first time and said "welcome to Hogwarts"


End file.
